bernard mizeki and proper seven

one of the great advantages of the liturgy is that it is not dependant on great sermons to be great worship. the hymns, the readings from holy scripture, the psalmody, the intercessions, and especially the prayer of great thanksgiving are so powerful that one can sit through a so-so sermon not so much in boredom as in anticipation of what comes next. i have, i admit, sat through many of those so-so sermons, and if i am truthful, i must confess i have preached some of them.

lately, however, i have been hearing very good sermons, sermons which take the role of proclaiming the word of the holy one today as a serious part of the work of the people called to be holy.

yesterday was no exception. chuck used as an example of the life to which jesus calls us in the gospel the story of bernard mizeki, who was killed for loving christ jesus and his followers more than the local religion. and even as chuck challenged us to take seriously jesus' call, he reminded us how easy it is to deny jesus, not in the dramatic ways which we might fantisize--"would i be faithful if faced with likely martyrdom?"--but in the little times, illustrated by an instance within his own life when he realized he had denied jesus without even noticing it.

chuck's confession of faltering faith made me wonder if we don't often deny jesus in a big way, also without noticing it. in the life (and martyrdom) of mizeki, it is easy for us to see his having abandoned what david l. veal calls in saints galore "that superstition and ignorace" of the local religions.

but we do not even recognize the the consumerism in which we so often worship for the religion which it is, a religion in the true sense of tying our world together, with which me have easily made peace, and from which we are very reticent to cut loose with the sword which jesus brings. our witness has been so easily neutralized that it would be silly to consider ourselves potential martyrs. again and again we have chosen "greed, which is idolatry," over the self-denial to which we are called. as often as not the cross we take up is a piece of jewelry. and we never notice that what we give up is the way that leads to true joy.

"Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."