Sharing

Well. All of these Scripture readings about marriage. Difficult to preach on at the best of times. Given the issues that the church is discussing at this particular point in time, I wonder what sermons will be preached from Episcopal pulpits today. I am going to preach primarily on the "other" lesson, the passage from Hebrews. As I say, the Genesis and Mark readings are difficult at the best of times. Difficult because Jesus seems to clearly and unequivocally condemn divorce. And Jesus seems to say that some parts of Scripture, even those parts attributed to no less a figure than Moses, were written for a particular people in a particular time and are not universally applicable to all people in all times. Jesus says that. Getting from what Scripture says to what Scripture means for us in our lives today always takes prayer, study, and interpretation. Interpreting Scripture is very important and very fruitful work. It is complex, challenging, rewarding. It is work we should all be engaged in life-long. Interpreting Scripture’s guidance in the area of human relationships is beyond the scope of a single sermon (at least an Episcopal 12.5 minute sermon) and well beyond the scope of a 15 second sound bite. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it; we should. It does mean I’m not going to do it in the ten minutes I have left.

Instead, I’m going to talk about "sharing." I’ll admit that when church folk start talking about "sharing", I usually start looking for an excuse to be somewhere else. Sharing is one of those words that the church has co-opted from general usage and given a special meaning. I know I’ve mentioned before that Clergy Days in the Diocese of Maine are not my most favorite activity. It sounds like a good idea for us clergy to spend time with friends and colleagues, sharing stories and concerns… Sharing. "Sharing" has become a ritualized activity in the church. "Sharing time" is always programmed into clergy days. This programmed sharing usually takes place in randomly assigned small groups.  Usually the topic to be shared is some sort of personal information on a subject chosen by the program leader. The result being that this sort of sharing seems almost always to entail the expectation that I will tell something about myself I would probably rather not tell, and that I will listen to things about others that I really would rather not hear. I’ll never forget my first clergy day when I heard a lot more about another priest’s menopause than I really wanted to know. I’ve been a bit suspicious of programmed "sharing" ever since.

Joking aside, it is true, though, that conversation brings people together, and as a church we are certainly meant to be about bringing people together. Sharing our stories, sharing our needs and our strengths, sharing our hopes and our fears, sharing our faith… This sort of sharing is a crucial part of our Christian lives; it is the primary activity that makes us a community. We are not just individuals who happen to pray in the same spot once a week. We are a Body, the Body of Christ, a community interconnected and interdependent. Those connections will only grow as we share our stories with one another. And for those of us (like me) who don’t have a taste for structured small-group sharing, we have all the greater responsibility to find ways of sharing our stories and our faith that are meaningful and constructive.  This sort of sharing is crucial to building and sustaining our Christian community.

When I think of the concept of "sharing", I have another immediate association in addition to church-programmed, small group sharing. Learning how to share is one of the most important lessons of childhood. Learning to share the back seat of the car with your brother on long car trips. Learning to share your toys with your friends. Learning to share your parents’ time with the other demands that are made upon them. Learning this sort of sharing is a very important part of growing up, of gaining maturity.  But this is a very different sort of sharing, isn’t it? For two young children, sharing the back seat of the car means drawing a line exactly down the middle. Exactly. Sharing toys means dividing them up between friends or dividing the time for play so that each person gets an equal share. This sort of sharing is really all about dividing. Odd, isn’t it? Sharing is about dividing, separating. Dividing and separating fairly and equitably. It’s the fair and equitable bit that makes it sharing. This sort of sharing is a fair and diplomatic recognition of different individuals’ needs and interests.

This is a noble goal, and this sort of sharing is part of our Christian responsibility, too. As Christians we are called to promote justice and equality. The sharing of resources and opportunities recognizes the right of every child of God to a place in the world and the life of the church. A child, at least a spiritually healthy child, does not get all of the toys all of the time just because they are "his". I did not get the whole back seat of the car just because I was older; my brother did not get a larger portion just because he was male. Sharing that recognizes human equality is a Christian endeavor.  And we practice this sort of sharing in the church whenever I share this pulpit with a teenager on Youth Sunday. We do it at General Convention when we share the financial resources of the church, for example, to publish materials for people whose native language is Spanish or French. We do it when we embrace General Convention’s call to share 50% of our parish’s time and resources on things other than ourselves. In our baptismal covenant, we pledge as part of our baptismal calling as Christians, to respect the dignity of every human being. That involves sharing.

And there is at least one more sort of sharing. It’s the best kind of all. It’s the sharing that the author of Hebrews is talking about. God, in Jesus Christ, chose to share our humanity.

From Hebrews, "Since, therefore, the children (that is us) share flesh and blood, he himself (that’s God in Christ Jesus)… he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death… For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect…

In Jesus, God shares our humanity in every respect.

This is a deep, intimate, powerful sort of sharing. Infinitely beyond even the closest of human relationships. God truly lives our lives with us. Inside our skin, inside our hearts and souls and minds. There is no pain a human being can face that Jesus has not taken into himself. There is no darkness a human soul may encounter that Jesus has not experienced. There is no path that we must walk that he has not walked. There is no place that we will ever find ourselves that he will not be there with us. With us. Jesus is with us and will be with us. Always and everywhere. Jesus shares our lives with us, bringing God’s comfort, strength and guidance into every corner of our human existence.

And there’s more. There’s even more to this holy sharing of God’s life with ours. Jesus shares our human experience to bring God’s comfort and hope into our human lives. But Jesus also shares our human experience so that, in the midst of our human lives, we may experience and feel and share the eternal life of God. True sharing doesn’t go just one way; it isn’t just God offering bits and pieces of God’s presence with us. True sharing also enables us to share in the eternal life and love of God.

I quote this collect from the Prayer Book often. It’s the collect for the incarnation: "O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity." Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity. We are offered and promised a share in the divine life of God.

I guess maybe sharing is a good thing, after all.

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