Sermons

Sermon, The Rev. Daniel Gutierrez, May 16

Listen to audio version of this sermon.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel suffered a near fatal heart attack. In the hospital he whispered to a friend “Sam, I only feel gratitude for my life, for every moment I have lived. I am ready to go. I have seen so many miracles during my lifetime.” Exhausted by his effort to speak, he continued, “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.”

How many of us have a sense of wonder? When was the last time you danced in the rain, overjoyed at life falling from the sky? Or sang out loud because it felt good. Reached over and kissed the one you love like you did when you were 18?

Wonder? Think of our universe, there are more stars than grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. Over 100 billion galaxies, some 13.2 billion light years away. It would take light traveling at 186,000 miles per second 12 billion years to reach the outer edges of the heavens. Mankind has tried to explain it, but really cannot.

The wonder of the human body. In the next few minutes, you will have inhaled and exhaled approximately 250 times, unconsciously. The surface of your lungs is 40 times greater than the surface area of your body—compressed within the tiny space between your ribs. Blood vessels are 100,000 miles long, enough to wrap around the equator four times. Our heart beats without any thought on our part. Mankind has tried to replicate it but we truly cannot.

Wonder, that a young man named Jesus, spoke of God, peace, love and redemption. Waked on water, raised the dead, healed the sick, accepted outcasts, died and rose to life again. All because of a great love that God has for each one of us. Mankind has tried to disprove it, but we cannot.

We have difficulty with wonder. At times it seems we have lost the sense of wonder. Driving to work, do we listen to pundits attack each other or pick out dragons shapes in the clouds. At home, do we turn on the game or computer, without noticing the robin’s nest in the backyard, or our child attempting to explain Spiderman’s superpowers, a teenager attempting to talk to us and cannot seem to find the words. The wonder it.

A favorite author wrote that by and large we have grown up. We no longer catch our breath at the sight of a rainbow or scent of a rose as we once did. We have grown bigger and everything else smaller, less impressive. We have become blasé, worldly wise and sophisticated. T. S. Eliot wrote that we “have had the experience and missed the meaning.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus was attempting to emphasize meaning over experience. You sense his desire to show God’s love and to assure us – that he is for real. Jesus says As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Throughout the bible we see that the more we rely on the world, we miss the wonder of God. With greater reliance on self, wonder becomes less important. We pass on by the wonder of that beautiful reality of Jesus Christ.

Wonder is essential to beings infused with meaning. Without wonder, you do not have awe. Without awe, you do not reverence. And if we do not have reverence, nothing is sacred – relationships, the environment, children, or even God. A philosopher wrote that reverence is the virtue that keeps people from trying to act like gods. The opposite of reverence is to forget you are only human, you begin to think you can act like a god.” True reverence cannot be for anything that human beings can make or manage by themselves.

Like those stars, those dragon clouds, the robin in her nest, a breath or love. None are of our own doing. And if we have wonder we are continually surprised. We can never lose that sense of seeing the miraculous, the wondrous in our daily life.

There is something beautiful and sacred in this church, and most pass it by on their way to get to “their seat.” Any guesses? If I told you it is where all the children congregate and are fascinated with – you would know it is the Baptismal Font.

Children have a innate sensitivity to mystery, and natural inclination to grasp wonder. That font is not only concrete, rock and water. To our children it can be a majestic waterfall, an ocean, a mountain bridge, or maybe, maybe even - Christ. Children readily accept the wonder of God while adults seek rational theories and explanations..

Think of the wonder of all the prayers, hopes and dreams of those who have stood there and were claimed for Christ – welcomed into this community. Isn’t it fitting that at the place of new life in Christ, is the place where children seek. The wonder of it.

We try to explain God and our lives - but why? If you have wonder, you bask in the gift. You can be astonished by the work of God in our lives. Do we really want a predictable God, who will never surprise us, astonish us, or leave us speechless. A God that will never transcend us?

With wonder, awe and reverence we do not always need explanations. We see every thing and everyone as having value. With wonder, reverence and awe we understand the hand of God infused each living thing with the divine. And then each step we take, each interaction becomes sacred. In Alice Walker’s book, the color purple - Shug Avery encapsulates “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

In today’s Gospel Jesus is asking God to help us with wonder. I found that with wonder, I don’t always have to understand and explain everything. Like the wonder in my heart the day I married my wife or the day of our son’s birth. How I miss them when they are away.

The pain you feel when you have to put down the dog, cat or horse that you have shared your deepest secrets, joys and tears with, and who in turn shared its life with you. The pain does not make sense if I cannot point to the wonder of Christ.

How can I explain why a lawyer would represent someone unjustly accused because of a commitment to social justice or why we are infuriated with acts of torture against our fellow human beings – it just seems to conflict with the “survival of the fittest” argument.

Why doctors operate on handicapped children or tend to homeless clients, or how daily teachers will take children not their own, protect, care and educate them all because of love. It is infused with goodness or meaning. Infused with the wonder of Christ.

How do I explain the life Jesus Christ, who despite not being wealthy, powerful, forceful or controlling, moved billions of people to make this world a better place. How his words of love, peace and hope are stronger than any king, President, bomb or army. The wonder of it.

The beauty of wonder, awe and reverence is that it frees us to live in the divine. Wonder opens up our lives to a world of possibilities. Your faith becomes as expansive as God’s heart. You begin to understand that religion is inclusive and not exclusive, faith welcomes and does not turn away. You realize that God embraces everyone with those celestial arms, and challenges you to do the same. We change from living as if nothing is wondrous, to live where everything is wondrous. Wonder allows you to see Christ in the ordinary, to see Christ in one another.

Maybe then we can look at that baptismal font in a different way, hear the calling in the robin’s nest, notice that the purple in the field, understand you are not alone. With wonder, it will be difficult not to hear the cries of suffering from our excluded brothers and sisters and not want to make things right.

Our lives are surrounded by miracles, wonders and more importantly Christ. We have incredibly deep, wondrous encounters with Christ. Make your life wondrous. Ask God for wonder, so that at the end of our days we can say we ask God for wonder and we received it, or we can just sit and wonder where our lives and meaning has gone.