The School of Theology, September 13, 1995
I. The preacher finds himself today surrounded by a lot of sheep and shepherds, and more significantly, a lot of wannabe shepherds in the congregation. It’s hard not to notice this, since all of today’s lessons are on the sheep and shepherd theme –thanks to Dann Brown for finding an eicon of the Good Shepherd nearly from Cyprian’s time.
II. For we gather this morning to remember before God with thanksgiving the life and witness of Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus, Bishop of Carthage, a shepherd who gave up his life for the sheep in 258 during the persecution under the emperor Valerian. Though he was never in danger of lapsing from the time of his conversion in 246 and election as bishop in 248, he did not exactly run to martyrdom, having fled into hiding from the Decian persecution in 249-50, for which he was severely criticized by the “let’s go out and get toasted for Jesus” crowd. Perhaps his own experience caused him to be such a champion for the moderate party who proposed allowing the lapsed back into the Church, and why he so stronglyopposed as heretics and schismatics Novatian and his colleagues who took a harder, sectarian-purist line. When push finally came to shove, though, Cyprian did not turn back.
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School of Theology, March 31, 1994
I. Dear Jesus there are so many feet, too many feet. I cannot manage all these feet. Pretty feet and ugly feet, healthy feet and diseased and maimed feet, clean feet and dirty feet, sexy feet and repulsive feet, callused feet and tenderfeet, but, all in all, way too many feet. Miles and miles of feet, endless, weary rows of feet, eager rows of feet, all demanding more water than I have in my bowl or my soul, and besides, the arthritis in my back can’t take much more of this.
The first few were kind of fun. After all, everyone knows you have to be somebody to wash feet on this night. If you’re nobody, you just get your feet washed. It’s a great privilege to wash a few feet. A precious few. Few. But those people who were supposed to spell us sat in the back, and they’re not switching off. This is getting serious, I’m not sure I can stand up after many more even if someone does relieve me. And as I glance up, I see the line going out the door, past Quintard and Gorgas, past the Cross down the old Cowan Road into the hollers, and on to all the Winchester neighborhoods, and the slums of Memphis and the barrios of Los Angeles, the dens of Hong Kong and the stews of Manila, the Ghosts of the Gulag, the beggars guild of Dheli, the slave markets of the Sudan, the cold ovens of Germany, the “Commonwealth” neighborhoods of Britain, the jails of Ireland, the brothels of Manhattan escort services, the shelters for the battered women and children in Pittsburgh, the homes for teens crippled for life in drive by violence in Chi town, and around and around the lines go, and they’re all taking off their shoes and socks and lining up a million times faster than I can wash a single toe, and I’m tired.
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School of Theology, September 29, 1993
I. Preacher Bound
On the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the preacher is pretty well bound to preach on angels. On other feasts, one can simply pick one of the lectionary texts, preach on that in its own terms, and have done homiletical justice. But today’s lessons have obviously been chosen simply because they mention angels, and though one could build a sermon on each, it would have little relationship to the occasion if the angels were omitted, even in the story of Jacob, where they are largely incidental.
A second temptation for the preacher on this occasion is to fall back on a purely symbolic and de-mythologized version of angelology, noting that in the Old Testament there is often no clear distinction between an angel and a theophany (though, again, Jacob’s ladder appears an exception), that angel means messenger of God, and go on to preach about theophanies and messages in quite a non-angelic manner. While this is less embarrassing in a modern context than taking on angels directly, it really ducks the issue, and leads to some of the problems to be discussed today as we proceed.
Instead I chose to spend the weekend with an important text on the subject, The Angels and Us, by University of Chicago philosopher Mortimer J. Adler, in an effort to see more clearly what Gospel good news this feast might still celebrate for us.
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