Honor the Name of Jesus.
Today is a feast day, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. That raises the issue of what’s in a name? But before we get into names, let’s start with the ways we use language to make sense of, well, everything. For example, you are all sitting in pews. We could say seats, we could say benches, but the most accurate word in English is pews. That’s true whether someone knows the word or not, if we were in another country with another language we’d need to learn new words and/or find people who understood ours.
Being a pew, its meaning goes deeper. It’s not just a place to sit, it’s a place specifically set aside for prayer, for hearing God’s word, for exchanging God’s peace and on and on. Some objects, some places are special. The layers of meaning can go very deep and frame our lives.
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The Obedience of Faith.
There is a challenge, a quandary if you will, that affects the people who serve on breakfast teams. They have to make a choice when they cook on Sunday mornings. Do they finish breakfast, clean up and go home and watch the service online knowing they have served Our Lord and his church? Or, do they rush home for a quick shower and change of clothes and return for service. The third option is to simply stay and attend service.
The concern they typically raise about that third option is that they don’t want to smell like bacon. I don’t understand that. Bacon has a beautiful smell. People get excited when they walk into a home and smell bacon. I’d say it’s a favorite smell, even attractive. They should make a cologne of it: Bacon. I can see the ads, featuring Kevin Bacon. He would turn to the camera and say, “You can smell the sizzle.”
I deeply appreciate our breakfast teams and each must decide what to do according to his or her own conscience. But if you do smell bacon, say, “Thank you.” The smell of bacon and bacon itself being a part of our life in the church points to an issue we find in our scriptures today, our release from the law and our call to “the obedience of faith.” If we weren’t released from the law, no bacon.
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Reassurance
When I went back to school now nearly 15 years ago, I had my doubts whether I even belonged there. I hadn’t been in the classroom for more than 35 years. I traveled to Winter Park to take classes with people I had never met. It didn’t take long to see who the smartest person in the room was! (Not me!)
How many of you can relate to the feeling of relief when the smartest person in the class asks your question? Remember sitting in the classroom at school. Do you remember the sense of relief when someone else asked that silly question before you had to? Especially, the question that you wouldn’t have ever expected the expert to ask. For some of us, it’s been a really, long time. However, I’ll bet you can still remember the feeling of reassurance and relief when the one with all the answers doesn’t know!
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