2010
Sermons
Dez 26 - In the Key of Pain or the Key of Joy
Dez 24 - Peace?
Dez 24 - Yes and No
Dez 23 - Everyday Care
Dez 19 - Just words?
Dez 12 - Is this all?
Dez 5 - With one voice, to glorify God
Nov 28 - Mountains Three
Nov 21 - Four Laughters
Nov 7 - The Power of the Tradition
Okt 31 - For the righteousness of God
Okt 28 - Separation
Okt 25 - Regret and Forgiveness
Okt 24 - An Everyday Prayer
Okt 17 - Our Persistent Lord
Okt 13 - And be thankful
Okt 10 - Anxiety and Thanksgiving
Okt 3 - Paul and Timothy, and ...us.
Sep 26 - Time for amendment of life
Sep 19 - Crisis and Mercy
Sep 12 - A Determined and Gracious God
Sep 3 - All the news we didn't want to hear
Aug 29 - To Beg
Aug 22 - Fire!
Jul 25 - Serving/Hospitality
Jul 18 - Hospitality
Jul 11 - Go and Do
Jul 4 - Extraordinary!
Jun 20 - Grace, and commissioning
Jun 13 - Grace in Action
Jun 6 - Alone
Jun 6 - Call and Conversion
Mai 30 - Say it three times
Mai 23 - God, clearly
Mai 22 - A Psalm for Life
Mai 16 - They Will Know that We Are Christians...
Mai 9 - On the Way
Mai 2 - New!
Apr 25 - A Question of Trust
Apr 18 - Jesus is Loose, to capture you!
Apr 11 - Forgive
Apr 4 - The Last Conflict
Apr 3 - Persistence
Apr 2 - Remembering
Apr 2 - What do we bury?
Apr 1 - Received...and handed on
Mrz 28 - The Stones Would Shout
Mrz 21 - All Miracle
Mrz 14 - Ambassadors?
Mrz 7 - Come, Forgiven
Feb 28 - The Power of the Truth
Feb 21 - Tested and Proclaimed
Feb 17 - Ready for the Meal?
Jan 31 - Volunteer or Draftee?
Jan 24 - Reality
Jan 17 - Now the Feast
Jan 10 - The Servant Does....
Jan 3 - True Words to Sing
Funeral of Stephen Berndt - October 25, 2010
Fortunately or unfortunately, Star Trek remains a futuristic fantasy.
We cannot play around with time the way those characters do.
For us, time still moves in one direction, second by second.
That means that events happen in one order only; we cannot go back in time to say something over, or to do something better.
There are those times when we wish that we could, but it is not in our realm of possibility, and that means that we often grow quite a large pile of regret.
If only I had...
If only we could have...
I wish that things would have been different ...
What can we do with the mess that I/he/she/we have made?
Regret is our unhappy companion.
It is like a lump under the carpet that causes us to trip when we walk by.
The lump needs to be removed, and all of our sweeping cannot do it.
Only a word from outside of us can remove regret.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul sounds that word: For while we were still sinners, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly...for us, for forgiveness.
That is the word that can remove the pile of regret.
That is the word that keeps us together and moving despite all of the problems that plague us.
That is the word which is stronger than regret.
Those who gather here today remember Stephen in a variety of settings: as son, brother, relative, school companion, friend, co-worker, etc.
Each will have a set of adjectives to describe that connection, some flattering and others perhaps not so positive.
The opportunities for friction in those relationships were many, and thus there have been lots of opportunities to accumulate regret upon regret.
If only he had let others a little more into his life.
If only we had been able to help more during his illness....and so on.
There is time for everything under the sun, our First lesson said, and so there is time for us to hear that the Lord Jesus reaches out to Stephen and to us with his promise of forgiveness and new life.
There is time for us to come to know
that God's love is stronger than our willfulness;
that his love is more persistent than our hard-headedness.
While we are still stewing about some irritation, unfulfilled wish, or pile of regret about Stephen and his quiet and distant ways, our Lord changes the situation.
Things become different when we hear Jesus' promise: “I love you and I forgive you, and you, and you.”
What will we do with regret and the rest?
Let's give it up to the Father in prayer, and pick up something in the place of regret.
Jesus says in today's gospel:
Take my yoke upon you; my burden is light.
The yoke is the task and obligation of offering forgiveness,
but it is a light burden, because Jesus is carrying it with us and for us.
I remember as a small child helping my father carry water to the tomato plants in the garden.
My hand was on the pail handle, but Dad was actually carrying the weight.
I was learning what to do and how to do it without spilling the water.
That is what we are doing now.
we are learning and experiencing forgiveness while Jesus carries the burden for us.
Jesus has baptized us into his church, and has not made it easy for us to get away from each other.
On happy days and also in painful times, we are still bound together in the one body of the church, even when we try to run the other way!
We need to be practicing forgiveness with each other every day.
We trust that we'll get better as we go along, until that day when we are together in the fullness of heaven:
--where there are no regrets,
--where forgiveness and mutual care are practiced fully and completely,
--when all that has been broken is put back together...no even better, remade!
That is what the love of God which endures forever will do, with Stephen and with us. Amen.
Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |