Amos 5:6-7,10-15; Psalm 90:12-17 Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
In the name of the one Holy and Undivided Trinity, Amen.
Several years before my father died, he began to send some rather large plastic bins home with me when I would go to visit him. These bins were filled with old family pictures, various documents and other heirloom items such as our family Bible and other personal items that had belonged to my grandparents that had been collected by the family over the years. As I was looking through these bins, there was this one particular bin that I opened where I discovered some of my grandfather’s old turkey calls. Most were old box calls that were ornately decorated with my grandfather’s initials in fancy font, and one had a beautiful depiction of a turkey in a field on it. The craftsmanship on these turkey calls was impressive. They now rest on a bookshelf in our living room. As I continued to make my way through the box, I discovered a couple of other items that at first appeared to me to be turkey calls as well. One in fact was a turkey call made from the wing bones of a turkey that I was able to figure out how to use with help from Google and the other I later learned was a crow call. Not being a turkey hunter, I was slightly perplexed and just assumed that the phrase ‘eating crow’ was not just rhetorical back in the day and that for some reason unbeknown to me my grandfather must have wanted to hunt crows for some reason.
A few years later Allison and I would get married and one of her coworkers at the time, offered to take me turkey hunting for a wedding gift. The offer came after a conversation in which I expressed interest in learning how to turkey hunt myself. I would learn that he himself was an avid turkey hunter and championship caller. So, we met early one spring morning and headed off for Pickens County in West Alabama for some land that my friend often hunted. He got me suited up and off we went. He referred to his walks through the woods as a death march. I thought to myself, if I’m going to get into this I’m going to need to get into shape. As we made our way through the woods, we stopped at a particular clearing, and he produced a call that made a loud piercing sound which sounded nothing like a turkey. I asked my friend, “What was that?” He replied, “It’s a crow call. They call it a shock call to get the attention of the turkeys.” Ah, it dawned on me now that the crow call that belonged to my grandfather served a purpose. It was not about hunting a bird that would seem to me to be anything other than a wildlife delicacy. He would periodically use this call as we navigated the woods and fields. When he got a response, we would set up shop on the edge of a clearing. In his bag somehow, he produced blinds, decoys and all the various calls that he needed.
Our reading from Hebrews this morning begins by describing the word of God as living and active, and sharper than a two-edged sword that is piercing and divides the soul from the spirit and the joints from marrow. That morning while turkey hunting the crow call felt like it was dividing my soul from my spirit as it caught me off guard. Our reading furthermore says that the word of God can judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, that no creature is hidden, and all are laid naked and bare before the one to whom we must render account. At first this
sounds like God is some eye in the sky watching our every movement, but what happens when you learn that this letter was written to a community that may or may not have been Jewish but was definitely Christian and had a strong interest in Jewish practices and faith. That this community had been through hard times. They endured abuse and the plundering of their property in spite of doing good works and showing the compassion for those who suffer. This community was in jeopardy of drifting away from the faith. Yet we hear this morning that the God who knows them from the makers perspective, the one who knows them from within is calling them back to community. Like that crow call meant to get the attention of those turkeys, God’s word that comes to us in scripture calls out to us because it is living and active and pierces the soul from the spirit. The word the Logos calls us into conversation and confession with God our divine maker who knows us intimately because he made us. We are not alone in this calling though as God sends us his Son who will be our great high priest who is able to sympathize with us and our weaknesses because he has been tested like us but is without sin. Not too long ago I heard Bishop G quote Bishop Stough talking about the priesthood. He apparently once said that ‘God reserved the priesthood for his hardest cases.’ Knowing my own path to ordination, I can attest to this sentiment. When we look at all those who God worked through in scripture, there seems to be a pattern of God working through those with faults. Yet we have a model high priest though in Jesus who shows us the way of love. Corrie ten Boom the German theologian who was arrested for helping Jewish residents avoid Nazi concentration camps is quoted as saying “And so I discovered that it is not on our own forgiveness any more than on our own goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on God’s. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” We must be able to acknowledge that we need help and invite Jesus into the middle or our lives, especially when we find ourselves in times of trial.
We find ourselves yet again in another season of division. That division is not only one of a political nature. Like the young Christian community our reading from Hebrews is addressing, the church today also finds itself divided and pulled in different directions about the role it should play and what it believes. When we find ourselves separated from our brothers and sisters how do we seek to repair the breech? One way offered to us is the sacrament of the Reconciliation of the Penitent and the absolution of God forgiveness offered. This sacrament gives us a spiritual tool to bring us back into relationship with each other and God. Sometimes we find models for this restoration in the unlikeliest of places. In giving me that box full of pictures and turkey calls my father called to my attention a passion enjoyed by my grandfather that would open up a new way for me to find a relationship with someone who left my life at an early age. Through the kindness and generosity of Allison’s coworker, I had the opportunity to engage my grandfather’s passion. I do not know if my grandfather and I would see eye to eye on some things today, but through the kindness of a friend, I was able to find common ground and a new appreciation for my grandfather who died nearly forty years ago. The sacrament of Confession and absolution is all about reconciliation and restoration of relationship. God calls us to do this hard work, as he gives us the love and the tools to do it. It’s not easy work but it is necessary work if we are to live into Jesus’ commandment to love God and love our neighbor’s as ourselves and to grow God’s kingdom in the here and now.
Amen