{"id":594335,"date":"2021-04-10T18:19:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T22:19:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:09:38","slug":"pearls-and-grit-easter-7-b-may-16-2021","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/pearls-and-grit-easter-7-b-may-16-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearls and Grit, Easter 7 (B) \u2013 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RCL: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-yellow-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-yellow-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=DFMS5351051788&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-yellow-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-yellow-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/E7-2021-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-244351\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everybody knows that oysters sometimes make pearls; that little tidbit has been used to illustrate many a point. But you may have heard that old truth said in a new way a while back, a way that gives it more power. It seems pearls aren\u2019t automatic. When an oyster\u2014who must ordinarily have an enviably calm life lying around, eating soft, pleasant food\u2014when an oyster somehow gets a piece of grit or a bit of sand inside its shell, then one of two things will happen: either the oyster will create a pearl or it will die. The pearl, a thing of beauty and value\u2014is the oyster\u2019s way of staying alive after something very irritating has gotten past its shell and into its heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take that little bit of marine biology as background, as we are offered a grain of sand, a bit of irritation, something small and rough that can maybe slip past our shells and give us something to work on. We\u2014and indeed the church itself, in this and every generation\u2014need to work on this bit of sand very carefully. It will not go away, and we will either make of it a pearl, or, in one way or another, we will die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The grit (like the oyster\u2019s sand) is well hidden in pleasant, soft food. The Gospel we just heard is a portion of what is called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. The time is \u201cthe night in which he was betrayed.\u201d Jesus is praying for his disciples\u2014and for us. He prays for our unity, for our joy, and for our safety and protection. Jesus says that we are not of the world, but that we should nonetheless remain in the world\u2014for our ministry is to be in the world, and for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Sidebar\u2014when Jesus says \u201cworld\u201d here, He\u2019s not talking about the created order\u2014rocks and trees and bunnies and things like that; instead, he\u2019s talking about human society organized as <em>it <\/em>sees best to promote its own purposes. Jesus is talking about business as usual; he is talking about the society, the culture, the various human institutions\u2014the world in that sense\u2014doing what it usually does.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Jesus says this about his disciples: that the world has hated them because they are not of the world. This hatred is to be the fate, indeed it is to be one real, distinguishing mark, of all who follow Jesus. Disciples are to stand out because they don\u2019t really fit in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bit of grit for us oysters is this: When was the last time the world hated you because you belong to Jesus, and not to the world? When was the last time your faith so set you apart from business as usual that you were met with anger, ridicule, or hatred? How about a little bit of contempt? Mild dislike? How about a tiny bit of irritation? I don\u2019t like that question, either. I don\u2019t like it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey, maybe Jesus was wrong; maybe, these days, we all <em>should <\/em>be of the world, and that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be. Maybe the Kingdom of God has arrived, and we just missed most everything about it, except for how convenient it is for us. But probably not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From time to time, we need to ask whether we have become so totally caught up in our culture, become so totally <em>of<\/em> the world, that we have to work hard to discover if we are different, and how we are different, and what it might look like for us to be different, and whether it\u2019s worth the effort, and the cost, to be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In many ways, it was easier for the Early Church. As a generally ignored and occasionally persecuted minority in a pagan culture, a lot of things were clear; there were some potent lists. For example: Christians couldn\u2019t attend the public games; they couldn\u2019t hold any of several types of jobs; they couldn\u2019t join the army; they couldn\u2019t expose unwanted children to the elements; and so on. Their culture, \u201cthe world\u201d, often ridiculed them or made them scapegoats, and occasionally killed them, and both sides pretty much knew why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not so easy these days. And to make it even harder, modern attempts to come up with lists of popular things Christians can\u2019t do have usually been rather silly. In fact, we Episcopalians have been downright smug in pointing out that we aren\u2019t like <em>those people <\/em>(you know who) who say you can\u2019t dance or wear make-up or go to movies or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the way, have you ever noticed that nobody ever really nails us on this? Instead of trying to establish God\u2019s disapproval for the waltz or bingo, <em>those people <\/em>could really hit home if they responded to our self-righteous lack of lists with another question. What if they said, \u201cO.K., have your martini and go to the dance\u2014but before you do, tell me how your faith <em>does <\/em>affect your life; show me how it makes a difference\u201d? That\u2019s the grit for us oysters. The truth is, we might be glad more folks haven\u2019t thought of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One way we try to get out of this pinch can cause just as much trouble. That way is saying that it\u2019s the Church\u2019s job to fix the world so there will be no conflicts between our faith and our culture for us to worry about. So, from time to time, we rear back and try to change everything within reach so we can be both righteous <em>and<\/em>of the world at the same time. Now, on one level, this is really, really good. We must engage the world, and we should try very hard to make things better\u2014things like institutions, systems, people, and ourselves. We need to do this; our faith demands it. But we need to avoid getting confused about what that means. And we get confused easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s sometimes easy to forget that God will bring in the Kingdom; we won\u2019t. And, even worse, we also find it very easy to begin supporting what we think is a good improvement in the world (for Christian reasons) but end up holding on to the improvement and forgetting the Christian part of it altogether. Of course, the best way to tell whether the cause or the Christianity is more important is by looking at how we treat people who don\u2019t agree with our improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And we get confused when we forget that the Lord doesn\u2019t call us to be powerful or effective as the world sees power and effectiveness. The Lord calls us to be faithful\u2014to live his life, to follow his steps. After all, of the twelve disciples, Judas was the most effective one at using both money and the powers-that-be to get what he wanted. So, trying to fix the world, while an important thing to do, isn\u2019t really the pearl we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this sermon is about grit, not pearls. We <em>don\u2019t <\/em>have a list of rules telling us how <em>not<\/em> to be of the world, and that\u2019s not because we think this stuff is unimportant, it\u2019s because we know that things just aren\u2019t list-simple. Still, and at the same time, we do know, and we must never forget, that the way we treat each other, and the way we treat our bodies, and our time, and our money, and our promises and our planet\u2014the way we treat all of the things we call \u201cmine\u201d\u2014these are and will remain very important\u2014and our Lord and his Church have some potent things to say about them. This side of the Kingdom, the world as Jesus spoke of it, the world as business as usual, this will always, in one way or another, be the alternative to faithfulness and not the means to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, how do we do this? How do we live faithfully and honestly, rationally, prudently, and with integrity, in the midst of a world that is really quite far from the Kingdom? How do we do this without being trivial, without being silly, and without minimizing either the depth of the tension between the Gospel and the world or the importance of our response? You may have some ideas already. Taking this challenge seriously amounts to some of the most important pearl-making work the church has on its agenda. It\u2019s really the question of how we are to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And we need to make these pearls, or we will die. We need to look honestly at \u201cthe world\u201d, the culture and institutions around us, and at who we are\u2014and then pay careful attention to, and take concrete steps toward becoming, the person and the Church the Lord would have us be. We may even discover that Jesus was right, and that, in one way or another, the world will hate, or at least misunderstand, us. But the Lord continues to pray for us, we are promised all of the help we need, and these pearls come from the oddest places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. James Liggett<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-1d70c145-00b3-4084-a44c-610f2cc34f5b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sermon-Easter-7-English.docx\">Word &#8211; Easter 7 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sermon-Easter-7-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-1d70c145-00b3-4084-a44c-610f2cc34f5b\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-bb6c5eae-7729-440c-885b-7b5b3c9ca71b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sermon-Easter-7-English.pdf\">PDF &#8211; Easter 7 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sermon-Easter-7-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-bb6c5eae-7729-440c-885b-7b5b3c9ca71b\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RCL: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19 Everybody knows that oysters sometimes make pearls; that little tidbit has been used to illustrate many a point. But you may have heard that old truth said in a new way a while back, a way that gives it more power. It seems pearls&#8230;<\/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-594335","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\/594335","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\/594335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477269,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/594335\/revisions\/3477269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}