Sermon Text: The Revised Condensed VersionI sometimes have a short attention span. I do like it when people cut to the chase. I like the Readers' Digest Condensed Version. I like minimalism.
So I like Angelus Silesius. He was a priest and poet of the 17th century. He wrote little two-line poems about God, like this one: God far exceeds the word that can ever be expressed In silence God is heard, in silence worshiped best I like that. It reminds us to be humble about what we think we know about God. The poet says that God is far beyond our little human brains. Our words about God can never really capture God. Angelus Silesius says all that in two short lines. God far exceeds the word that can ever be expressed In silence God is heard, in silence worshiped best Because of my sometimes short attention span, that speaks to me. And for that reason, I like John chapter three, verse sixteen. It may be the most famous line in the New Testament. It sums up the whole Gospel: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. This text says that God is all about love. God is all about compassion. God is all about care. Therefore, the Christian life is all about love. The Christian life is all about compassion. The Christian life is all about care. Like Father, like Son. Like God, like us. God loves the world, and so we are to love the world. This short text from the Gospel of John cuts to the chase. Now, I don't know how you feel about spiders. A lot of people hate spiders or fear them. Not me. I grew up with the story of Charlotte's web. I read comic books about a nerdy teenager who was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained super powers as Spider-Man. We have had some beautiful wolf spiders and orb spiders near our home, and we love to watch them. So spiders do not creep me out. And there is a spider who has actually become my hero. I read about this spider years ago. The spider traps flies in its web. I hate flies, so three cheers for spiders. This spider does not have a stomach. It injects the fly with digestive juices. The spider's prey -- the fly -- becomes the spider's stomach. The innards of the fly are turned into soup and the spider eats that soup. Now, I read this, and as a bookworm nerdboy, I found it fascinating. Boys like gross things, right? But there is more. Most spider moms lay eggs near a food source and then leave the eggs to hatch on their own. But not this particular spider I read about. She does not leave her eggs. She protects the eggs. She gathers them on her back and she looks like a swollen lump. You see, love bears any burden. Love will even take on ugliness for the beloved. When the baby spiders are born, she feeds them, like most mothers do. But then she does something more than most mothers do. And it's this last supper which is amazing. Sometimes food is scarce. Sometimes there are no flies in the spiderweb. That's when this mother spider becomes my hero. The spiderlings will die if they don't eat. So the mother spider releases her digestive juices, but into her own body this time. She holds very still, and her own insides are turned into soup. She dies. She becomes food for her children. Now, if that doesn't remind you of Christ, you haven't been listening. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. The Gospel of John says that, chapter three, verse 16. Later, the Gospel of John will describe how Christ lays down his life for his friends. And the Gospel will say that Christ, the Son of God, becomes food -- the bread of life -- for his friends. In a way, Jesus is like that mother spider. Or, in a way, that mother spider is like Jesus. Christ feeds us in every Eucharist. Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. And then he tells us to do what he does. He has fed us, and now we are to feed others. He has served us, and now we are to serve others. He has loved us, and now we are to love others. I suppose you wouldn't care for me to ask you to imitate a spider. But it does make sense for me to encourage you to imitate Jesus. You have been loved. So be loving. You have been served. So be a servant. You have been fed. So share your bread. And that, my friends, is the Readers' Digest Condensed Version. |
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3/14/2018
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