The Rev'd Tommy A. Thompson
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, West Vincent
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In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In the Epistle Lesson appointed for today, St. Paul diagnosed the problem not only in the early Roman church but in so many parishes that have come after - they / we were puffed up with pride rather than living life in awe of God. Paul’s words to the Romans and to the church of all time: “Do not become proud, but stand in awe.”
Think about the last time you were in awe. Just think for a moment. Where were you? What happened to inspire such a raw and organic emotion?
A recent example in my own life was just a couple of weeks ago in Moosehead Lake, Maine. We were driving with our tour guide when I saw a Moose in the woods beside the road. I asked the guide to stop. And when he did the Moose didn’t move but stood right beside us only a few feet away. The guide believed that this cow’s calf was on the other side of the road. He strongly recommended we all stay in the car and not do anything to threaten her or the young moose. We stared at one another for a few minutes, and then, when mama moose became more comfortable with us, she slowly walked into the road, right behind our vehicle and just stopped and stared at us for a few seconds before finally going to the other side of the road and slowly disappearing in the woods.
What a creature and what a moment. I was in awe.
I recall our vacation to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. I remember stepping out of the tour bus wondering when we would finally get to see the canyon. I remember the reverence in Leslie’s voice as she said, “Tommy! Look!” A tear was pulled from my eye as I looked up and saw the reality that photographs so desperately attempt to capture -- or maybe even moreso, later in the day when my son and i sat and prayed as the sun began to set as we gazed down on the Colorado River. I was in awe.
Think about the times in your life when you found yourself in awe.
I was in awe when i saw my bride walk down the isle to become my wife.
...when i witnessed the birth of my children
… when my children reached certain milestones or rites of passages, or when God worked miracles in their lives...i was in awe
… when i got up earlier than i care to get up to see the sunrise over the ocean
… when i got to see a humpback whale breach from the water … i was in awe.
… when i saw the Niagara falls
… when i visited the land of the Holy One, i was in awe
… i could go on and on and on.
When was the last time you stood in awe?
This week i’ve been thinking alot about what it means to live life in awe. As I considered what that means, I was taken to Isaiah 6 when Isaiah was in the temple offering “routine” worship to God and the veil was lifted and heaven and earth clashed together as they do in worship. Isaiah’s response: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah was in awe…
Just recently we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration. Imagine what it was like for those three disciples on that mountain as their Lord was transfigured before their eyes. The glory was blinding. They were knocked down to their knees in the midst of the majesty of God. Peter wanted to build tabernacles. They were in awe….
And just yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Mother of God - the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary’s entire life could be summed up with one word - awe.
She was in awe when the angel visited her and announced that she was blessed among all women and would be the holy mother of God -- that through her flesh, God would put on flesh. Mary was in awe.
She was in awe and “treasured these things in her heart” after giving birth to her Creator. She was in awe when her twelve year old boy taught teachers in the temple...she was in awe in Cana when her boy turned water into the finest of wine...she was in awe when the fruit of her womb was poured out on the cross in love for the redemption of the world.
The Mother of God lived her life, not puffed up with pride, not self-centered, but in awe of the presence of God in her midst.
I ask you, when was the last time you stood in awe of the presence of God!?
Paul is right on - the biggest problem the church faces is that too many of us have lost our sense of awe and wonder in this world. We begin to take ourselves so seriously that we take for granted the presence of God with us in the so-called mundane existence of our everyday lives.
I’ve learned that sometimes the best way to define a word is to look at it’s antithesis. When you do a simple google search for the opposite of awe, you get these words: fearlessness, contempt, disrespect, familiarity, irreverence. I asked a colleague this week what he thought was the opposite of awe. He said, “Complacency.”
You know what’s the most destructive to the local parish and what will divert God’s people from fulfilling their God-given mission in the world?
Fearlessness, contempt, disrespect, familiarity, irreverence -- all summed up in his word - complacency.
You know what words are synonymous with awe?
Wonderstruck, amazed, astonished, open-mouthed, reverential.
When was the last time you stood in awe of God?
When we stand in awe, we are emptied of ourselves. Part of what it means to be in awe is to be reminded in a moment as you gaze into the eyes of another human being, or are struck by the majesty of creation, is that we are small and not as big and as important as we might have thought we were in the scheme of things.
In the presence of God, we realize how small we are and are thus overwhelmed that God loves me, even me, that God took on our flesh, that God lived our life for us, that God died for us and rose from the grave to unite us once and for all to his majestic life. When we have the ultimate awe-inspiring experience of standing in the presence of the one who loves us and died for us, we can no longer live life puffed up with pride, indifferent, irreverent, disrespectful of all that points to the Creator.
Today S. Paul invites us to repent of a life that is ego-centric and puffed up and to stand in awe of the God who is always in our midst.
One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is Acts 2:42-47. There is a debate among scholars concerning whether the content of these verses were ever truly realized in the first century or whether it’s purely idealistic. To me it doesn’t really matter either way. The first century church, at the very least, aspired to these marks, and it should be the goal of every parish on earth. Here are just a couple verses from this pericope:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon everyone...And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
When was the last time you were in awe of God?
In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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