Sunday, January 04, 2009

Leaving the Temple of the King

Today's sermon was given by Mary Cat. We were given another personal story, this one based loosely on the wise men's journey to Bethlehem. It was the story of her first trip to Washington D.C. ten years ago with her High School History quiz bowl team. She went to Washington as no fan of our country. I suspect she was taught and raised in the modern liberal method, and she had come to believe that American was the land of the oppressed, the discriminated against, and the homophobic (yes she did throw in a line about the oppressed GLBTs). Were things that bad in 1998? Maybe she didn't listen to President Clinton's "Things are Great" State of the Union address. Alas, I am afraid that her history team had studied a revisionist history of the United States. It grieves me to think that our youth are still being raised to believe that such negative things are at our nation's core.

Mary Cat's personal epiphany came when she visited (don't roll in your grave Col. Cadwallader Jones)
the Lincoln Memorial and read “In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.” I guess she came to understand that America is a place where people struggle for and achieve liberty and justice. I wish she had seen and said that America is the place where we can struggle for liberty and justice as "one nation under God." I also wish her epiphany had been somewhere else, like...,


Fat chance there! I ask too much.

Frankly, I think the sermon was short on God-talk and long on an earthly Kings/Presidents feeling. The hope for "change" with the upcoming inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama was evident in her sermon. Quite frankly, I fear that people are guilty of putting Obama on the throne in the temple of the King. We should remember the history of Politics and Presidents: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

I was also reminded of the Gospel reading from today. The wise men also went to the temple of an earthly King, Herod. Their personal epiphany was when they saw the writing on the wall and took a different route home. This of course after bowing before the real King in the person of the Christ child. In my humble opinion, that is the route today's sermon should have followed. Leave behind your earthly Kings. Start with Christ the King, and follow Him. Oh, the places you will go. The things that you will see. The person you will become. That is the change I'm looking for.



Anyone out there have a problem with "wise men?" I think that might be another thing to "change." How about wise "persons?"
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8 comments:

  1. Undergroundpewster6:41 PM

    Typos corrected, I hope.

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  2. Anonymous4:11 PM

    Now that the lone voice of orthodoxy and theological reason has retired, we can reasonably expect more liberal pap from the pulpit at ECOOS.

    As a sidebar, I note with both joy and sorrow that another parish has left EDUSC, rejecting the style and direction which TEC has taken over the last 20-30 years. The vicar, the vestry and about 85% of the congregation at St. John's, Clearwater (North Augusta)have aligned themselves with a more God-fearing, traditional Anglican group. While I wouldn't expect such an action at ECOOS (way too many liberals), after GC 2009 which is set to authorize gay marriages, I would expect an acceleration in the rate of decline in attendance and giving as the more traditional crowd seeks alternative ways to express their love of Jesus Christ and respect for His Bible. God help us all.

    PS--How many recognized Beauvoir without clicking on the photo?

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  3. Unknown8:51 PM

    So...how does LGBT rights, environmentalism, huzzahs for Obama, etc. relate to preaching the Gospel? When did we give up the Great Commission in favor of political and sociological baloney? If the rector and the curate are off on some God-awful tangent, where is the vestry? Who sill stand up for the people in the pews who have remained faithful through all these dark days?

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  4. Undergroundpewster9:30 AM

    I fear that the loss of Fr. Dunbar's voice at the staff meetings, in the hallways, and in the pulpit, will have many repercussions over the next few years.
    The faithful need to be empowered to challenge the clergy to be true to the Gospels and traditions as handed down by the Saints.

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  5. Perpetua6:11 PM

    Hi,
    What is the significance of Col. Cadwallader Jones? Is he particularly well know for something?

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  6. Undergroundpewster7:08 PM

    "Old Cad" as he was known (at least in John Gary Anderson's autobiography) and his family started the Church of Our Saviour. They moved to Rock Hill in 1857, and as the first Episcopalians in the settlement started worshipping here with their ten children. He served in the War of Northern Aggression, and was a SC state senator. Following the war, the period of reconstruction was especially hard on the people of this area according to Anderson, and the Colonel's plantation fell on hard times as there was no labor, no mules, no money.

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  7. Anonymous8:47 AM

    I enjoy reading you the way I enjoyed reading Bill Buckley -- wacky but really bright stuff. It would be nice to get politics out of religion entirely, but it would be equally nice not to have people still plumping for fundamentalist religion.

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  8. Undergroundpewster9:06 AM

    Thanks, Anon, but what did you mean by "plumping?"

    The Free dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/plumping) has the following definition,

    v. plumped, plump·ing, plumps
    v.tr.
    To make well-rounded or full in form: plumped up the pillows.
    v.intr.
    To become well-rounded, chubby, or full in form: The baby plumped out at three months.

    Well rounded fundamentalism has a nice ring to it.

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