Sermon 11.16.25 Don't Hedge Your Bets

Sermon Begins at 19:50

I want begin by assuaging any fears based on my wife’s Facebook post at the beginning of this week.  I have not joined a convent, though I did spend this past week and will spend the coming week at Transfiguration Spirituality Center trying to get significant chunk of my doctoral dissertation completed.

I went to prayer with the sisters of the Transfiguration every night when I was there to say Compline.  It was awesome.

Also, and I didn’t know this going in, the sisters have already started the season of Advent and they’re trying to bring back a 7 week Advent.

At the end of the week, the 151^st Diocesan Convention of the Diocese of Southern Ohio took place and I want to thank our delegates: Tyrone Yates, Katrina Mundy, Gail Riley Kenney, and Marlena White for representing us.

If there is anyone who has no idea what that last sentence means, it means that the 70 Episcopal churches of Southern Ohio got together this past weekend and did some bidness.

Sadly, we had to vote on closing the parish of Holy Trinity in Kenwood, whose members gave their best effort over the past few years to revitalize and renew, but took the difficult decision to dissolve their church.

And, we had to hear the distressing news that one of our sister congregations, Grace in College Hill, are in a temporary pause of ministry while SafeChurch issues are sorted out, and so we pray for their church and its members.

On a delightful note, we spent Friday in breakout sessions talking about Congregational Development: how to lead change wisely, how to think about the health and vitality of our churches, how to break out of cycles of, “we’ve always done it that way.”

In one of the sessions, our friend the Rev. Aaron Rogers told a whole room of people about how awesome St. Andrew’s is, because of our ministries.

There was a display for the Reparations Taskforce, which I am happy to say has been made a permanent part of the Diocese as we voted to create the Commission for Reparative Justice in a landslide.

The work of repairing the breach and restoring streets to live in will be accomplished in this diocese.

Thanks to the work of Vincent Nealy, we had a display in the exhibit hall that showed some of the history of our church and we were able to talk to fellow Episcopalians all over Southern Ohio about our beloved St. Andrew’s.

We also got to share our vision for the future and show our fellow Ohioans the steps we’ve taken to literally become restorers of a Montgomery Road to live in:

Our shared vision of turning over every stone and cinderblock of this physical plant to create a new worship space made for us, by us; and supportive housing for our most vulnerable neighbors.

Did you know that Cincinnati Public Schools is opening a parking lot at one of their schools in a few weeks so that students whose families live in their cars have a safe place to park their housing for the night?

The need is there, and we are stepping into the breach with our very body.

I would say that the overall response was somewhere between awestruck and inspired.

St. Andrew’s, people are noticing what you are about; seeking the kingdom.

The future for this neighborhood is a promising one and we are poised to be right in the middle of it.

God is here right now getting us ready for that future: a future that is already not yet (to use the confusing churchy phrase).

A period where we’re waiting for a promise that we can see, but which is still on the horizon.

Maybe it is Advent already, but not yet.

As I sat with all of this promise for the future this weekend, for our church, for our diocese, for my own hopes for my dissertation;

As I thought about the promise of our Scripture messages this morning;

And as I thought and prayed about all the promise on the horizon for all of you in your personal lives, professional lives, spiritual lives;

I also recognized that outside of the walls of that space of hope and promise, the world was continuing to move at its own pace; threats of war, actual war, talking heads, emails, files, abuse of power, people living in fear, unsure of the future.

These things often live side by side; promise and uncertainty, a vision of glory and the tunnel vision caused by despair for our present woes.

In a strange way, the sum total of our readings from the Bible this morning presents us with this same contrast,

And I feel moved to preach to you this morning: “Don’t hedge your bets; with the subtopic, “getting lost between the promise and the present.”

Our Reading from the prophet Isaiah this morning sets out a bold prediction of a future full of promise for a people who had experienced displacement from their homes and their kingdom.

“I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth; a new Jerusalem.”

And as the old song says, “no more crying there, we are going to see the King, Alleluiah, Alleluiah, we’re going to see the King.”

Nobody will steal the things that you have produced either your labor, or your buildings, or your produce.

Nobody will die before it’s their time.

These are some of the same images that John writes about in the book of Revelation;

Things that Jesus would have had in mind when he was warning about trusting that the Temple that had been rebuilt after the exile - the thing that everyone thought was the realization of Isaiah’s promise –

Was the solution to all of their problems.

What I want to suggest to you today is that there is almost always a dilemma between the promise and the present; a sort of Scylla and Charybdis if you’re a fan of Homer’s Odyssey.

In that story, Odysseus, who has spent 10 years trying to get home from the Trojan War, finds himself at a small strait of water between the island of Sicily and what would become the town of Calabria on the Italian mainland.

He is warned that on one side of the strait are dangerous rocks and a many headed beast that would eat some of his men if he got too close;

On the other side, a whirlpool that would consume his whole crew and take them down into the depths.

In order to get home, he has to go through the gauntlet, he can’t go around.

So, he’s told, if you have to get near to one, it’s better not to get dragged down by the whirlpool and lose everything.

In thinking about the promise and the present, there is also a danger in getting too close to one side or the other; of seeing a future so full of promise that it seems inevitable and that we can relax and just let it come,

Or of seeing the vicissitudes, the signs of destruction, in the present and becoming immobilized by fear, apathy, or resignation.

This is what the Apostle Paul is getting at when he is writing to the Thessalonians.

You may remember the other week that I told you some of the context for his writings to the Thessalonians.

People thought the end was coming soon, that any time God would be revealed and the promises would be here.

But, they were also dealing with persecution, and arrests, and worry about the people in power.

When Paul tells his people, don’t be idle, he’s not saying, “Hey, I know that 2,000 years from now there will be these things called congregations where 10% of the people do most of the work.”

(as an aside, I’m grateful to say that the success of St. Andrew’s 130^th shows that our percentage is way higher, go us!)

What Paul is actually worried about is the complacency that comes on either side of the coin of promise and the present.

To say it plain, because I was always told “make it plain, preacher.”

If you feel like the future is set, sometimes you take your foot off the pedal and coast.

Likewise, if you feel like the present is horrible and that you have no agency, sometimes you may be tempted to throw up your hands and settle into your powerlessness.

Both are a form of what Paul is getting at when he says, “don’t be idle.”

In modern parlance, we would rephrase it, “don’t hedge your bets.”

Don’t go half way in, or dip your toes.

Now, don’t mis-hear me either, I’m not saying, “don’t rest.”

God knows after the monumental effort of putting together SA130, which was incredible beyond what we could have hoped for, that we need to take stock and appreciate what we accomplished.

But, as we move forward with our vision for this church’s future and as we think about the promise that God has for each of our lives both here in this world and in the age to come,

We continue to recommit to doing whatever things God requires of us to get there; All-in;

Recognizing that the danger of the promise is that when we get there, we may think we’ve arrived, or the present - that things will always be this good or this bad.

My message to you today is to recognize that our pathway home lies between the dangers of promise and present,

Odysseus’ travels remind us that between those dangers, we steer closer to promise than getting pulled into the vortex of despair.

Paul reminds us to stay active.

And, Jesus offers this consolation at the end of his message; “by your endurance, you will gain your souls.”

Wherever you find yourself on this journey today, whether you’re closer to the promise, or you’re feeling pulled in by the present state of the world, “don’t hedge your bets.”

Jesus is here, and he is using this moment in our lives to prepare us to gain our souls and to show us the way to our new home; a new heaven and a new earth.

I want to close this morning with the words from the hymn that we sang during the Gospel procession.

They were written by the Rev. Walter Russell Bowie almost 100 years ago and I think they are a good way to remind us to keep closer to the path of promise.

He says, “New advent of the love of Christ,Shall we again refuse Thee,Till in the night of hate and warWe perish as we lose Thee?From old unfaith our souls releaseTo seek the kingdom of thy peace,By which alone we choose Thee.

O wounded hands of Jesus, buildIn us Thy new creation;Our pride is dust, our vaunt is stilled,We wait thy revelation;O Love that triumphs over loss,We bring our hearts before Thy cross,To finish Thy salvation.”

Maybe the sisters of the Transfiguration are right, maybe it is Advent already.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever we are being led today and tomorrow;

Don’t hedge your bets, don’t try to get home by half measures, seek the kingdom of peace the promise by which alone we choose our savior over and over again, and in the midst of your present worries bring your heart to his cross, because it is by your endurance that you will receive your soul.