SPEAKER_00: I speak to you in the name of our one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: In today's gospel, our Lord Jesus gives us several images for the kingdom of heaven, summarizing many of the parables that we have heard over the discourse of the past several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And by kingdom we mean God's reign in our lives, God's way of love, mercy, justice, and the grace of God that is being lived out in our lives every day.
SPEAKER_00: And the impact that God has in the world through you and I.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we mean.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I offer to us as an understanding of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says that the kingdom is like a mustard seed that begins small but grows beyond what we might expect.
SPEAKER_00: It is like yeast hidden in flour until the whole thing is leavened.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a treasure hidden in a field with a pearl of such great value that those who discover it willingly reorder.
SPEAKER_00: They reorder everything in their life around this pearl that they found.
SPEAKER_00: Because, my friends, they found something greater.
SPEAKER_00: And they begin to reorder everything in their life around this greater thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is showing us what happens when we have that kind of moment, when we recognize something of greater worth.
SPEAKER_00: When this happens, everything else in our life begins to find its proper place, not against it, but with it, in relation to it.
SPEAKER_00: And I suggest to us that this is what it means for our life to be reordered.
SPEAKER_00: There's a prefix there to do something again.
SPEAKER_00: Our life up until this moment has been ordered by many things.
SPEAKER_00: Our life has been ordered by our career aspirations.
SPEAKER_00: Our life has been ordered by family and friends.
SPEAKER_00: Our life has been ordered by the degrees and the certifications that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, the Holy Spirit invites us to engage and to participate with God's mission and ministry in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And as that happens, we begin to see our life being reordered.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to see the priorities that we hold dear beginning to be reordered.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this ongoing discernment where we're recognizing the things that God is allowing to come up to the surface of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we value and everything entrusted to us begins to find its proper place within the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: And quite simply, when this happens, the mercy and the grace of God that we have received begins to be extended to others.
SPEAKER_00: And this reordering, my friends, reaches into the ordinary, the hidden, and the very practical parts of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I find myself in the midst of this reordering.
SPEAKER_00: That which was once so important doesn't seem to be quite important anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Things that I often went in my life unnoticed.
SPEAKER_00: Now I cannot help but to see.
SPEAKER_00: It happens when following Christ becomes more important than protecting our own preferences.
SPEAKER_00: It happens, this reordering happens when reconciliation becomes more important than holding on to the grudge and the resentment.
SPEAKER_00: When another person's dignity matters more than the labels or the assumptions that we have placed upon them.
SPEAKER_00: This reordering can happen when our time makes room for someone who needs our presence and our love.
SPEAKER_00: And it also happens when what we possess and the resources and even the treasures of our life and labor, we begin to use them not only for ourselves, but for the good of others.
SPEAKER_00: And none of this, please don't hear this that relationships, time, money, and the things that are near and dear to us do not matter.
SPEAKER_00: They do matter.
SPEAKER_00: But I offer for our thought today is that what this does mean is that all of these things, the very elements and aspects of our life, they begin to find their proper place and purpose within the order that God has offered for our life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's centered around Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all done for the greater glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear this thought expressed in the collect today, when we asked God to be the ruler and guide as we pass through things temporal without losing sight of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is not whether these temporal things matter.
SPEAKER_00: Again, they do.
SPEAKER_00: Our social clubs matter, our affiliations and friendships matter.
SPEAKER_00: Allowing our children to have memorable experiences of sports and leisure and academic pursuit, it all matters.
SPEAKER_00: And as disciples of Christ, it's all the more effective when all these things are centered and grounded in the Christ that we follow.
SPEAKER_00: And when we allow this reordering to happen in our lives, it has a way of changing how we see God.
SPEAKER_00: It changes how we see ourselves, and it changes, most importantly, how we see each other.
SPEAKER_00: The poverty, suffering, failure, and the difficult circumstances that never tell us the whole truth of another human being's story.
SPEAKER_00: When we allow God to reorder us, we allow God to reorder the way we see and the way we hear.
SPEAKER_00: And we begin to walk together and learn from one another, recognizing the worth and the value we see, the perth, amongst us, because every person is created and beloved by God, and they have God-given dignity that calls forth the love and mercy and concern of God in us.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we pray, and you heard these words in the collect increase and multiply upon us your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Increase and multiply.
SPEAKER_00: So I offer this.
SPEAKER_00: If God's mercy is increasingly reordering our lives, things are shifting, things are moving around, priorities that God is raising up in our spirit begins to float to the surface, then perhaps that same mercy, that same grace, will and indeed should become visible in how we live, and how we forgive, and how we notice the person that others pass by, and how we respond and navigate when life becomes hard and difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And so on this Sunday, all across our diocese, parishes will remember what is known as Wilmer Hall Sunday, and they will collect a special offering which gives us a concrete opportunity to participate in the work of God in the lives of these children and families that they serve because they too are experiencing a reordering.
SPEAKER_00: Life for them has been difficult and challenging, and our diocese offers this opportunity as a service to them, those that need safety, stability, nurturing, and support.
SPEAKER_00: And as we support Wilmer Hall, we are reminded of how the Spirit of God is at work in our own lives, reordering us.
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded that the way has not always been easy for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we have an opportunity to give back and pay it forward all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Reordering of our lives does not just end with our charitable contributions, though.
SPEAKER_00: It invites us to go a little step further.
SPEAKER_00: It also means that if we're going to allow God to reorder our lives, we have to be intentional about learning what that reordered life looks like.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, a reordered life is one that prioritizes Christian formation and education.
SPEAKER_00: And I submit this for your reflection as we prepare for a new program year and we get ready for children's church and Sunday school and all these things that are not just another thing to do, but they're meaningful opportunities for us to engage in ongoing learning, ongoing reordering and discovery of this amazing God that loves us so in the ways that we're called to live out and embody that love.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: When we as the adults in the parish begin to make these priorities, when we as the parents and the grandparents and the aunts and the uncles begin to participate in this reordering through intentional formation, we begin to model that for the children in our parish.
SPEAKER_00: And before long, you will see a culture of discipleship and love and a love for lifelong learning begin to take over this place.
SPEAKER_00: And it will become an embedded culture that will be a part of the legacy of nativity that will far extend you and I.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that we live for?
SPEAKER_00: And allow God to reorder these things, and by doing so, we participate more fully in the kingdom, the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: So, my friends, consider where your life needs to be reordered, reordered around Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Consider your priorities, consider your relationships, consider your time, your treasure, your talent, what you possess, and the ways in which God is moving and leading and calling you in this season.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we prepare to come to this altar and receive the nourishment to do this reordering, also know that we receive again and again the grace of God that makes this reordering possible.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ gives himself to us so that our lives may increasingly reflect his kingdom, his love, and his way for the greater glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.