{"id":609578,"date":"2022-01-17T18:24:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T23:24:33","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:37:47","slug":"gods-yes-epiphany-6-c-february-13-2022","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/gods-yes-epiphany-6-c-february-13-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Yes, Epiphany 6 (C) \u2013 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[RCL] Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s Scriptures are filled with binaries\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prophet Jeremiah shares God\u2019s Word: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals\u2026 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poetry of the Psalms begins with: Happy are those\u2026 who delight in the law of the Lord. Doomed are those\u2026 who walk in the counsel of the wicked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Gospel text, Jesus echoes this ancient binary template: Blessed are you who are poor, who hunger, who weep\u2026 Woe to you who are rich, full, laughing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us resist binaries. We try to stay open-minded by practicing \u201cboth\/and\u201d thinking, rather than getting stuck in \u201ceither\/or.\u201d We don\u2019t want to be boxed in, and we certainly don\u2019t want to be judgmental. Our resistance to binaries has roots deep in our Anglican spirituality. Our institutional DNA is stamped by the Elizabethan Settlement back in 1559 that sought a via media<\/em>, or middle way, between Rome and Geneva, between Roman Catholics and Calvinist Reformers. Episcopalians are known for accepting ambiguity as part of a life of faith. We are cautious about rigid \u201cblack and white\u201d thinking, more comfortable than many of our fellow Christians with the metaphorical \u201cgrey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks be to God! There is room in our tradition for people to be honest about their doubts! The virtue of humility often accompanies ambiguity. Who are we, after all, to know the mind of God, much less proclaim God\u2019s judgment? Week by week at the Holy Eucharist, we proclaim the \u201cmystery\u201d of faith, not the objective, measurable \u201cfacts\u201d of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet\u2026 yet\u2026 amid our embrace of the \u201cgrey area,\u201d of ambiguity, of \u201cboth\/and\u201d thinking, of \u201cmystery,\u201d the Holy Spirit presents us these binaries from our holy texts and invites us to wrestle with them, rather than dismiss them as being antiquated, unenlightened, or worse, an anathema to our preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the way to work with these contrasting images is to place them in the context of Epiphany light. The classic symbol of Epiphany is the star that guided the wise men from the East to the infant Jesus. Epiphany light comes from that mysterious star but also from the light that emanated from the stable, the Christ child himself, who is \u201cLight from Light\u201d and in whom \u201cthere is no darkness at all,\u201d (1 John 1:5). We now begin our sixth week of soaking up Epiphany light, praying that the \u201ceyes of [our] heart[s] might be enlightened,\u201d so that we see a bit more like God sees (Ephesians 1:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve heard throughout this liturgical season, Epiphany means \u201cmanifestation\u201d or \u201crevelation.\u201d The Church focuses on the Epiphany or revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, fully human, fully divine. And he is the Christ not just for his people, the Jews, but importantly God\u2019s anointed one for the salvation and redemption of the whole world. In Jesus the Christ, God reveals to us God\u2019s final word to creation generally, to humanity particularly, and that word is \u201cYes.\u201d God\u2019s word to us affirms our preciousness to God. God\u2019s intractable \u201cYes\u201d is expressed in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n