Sermon begins at 19:27
Good Morning St. Andrew’s
As we move closer to the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ for Christmas
As we think about family and warm fires, Christmas trees (which, paranthetically, we haven’t put up yet, because we’re all good sticklers for observing a full Advent. Just don’t come over to my house and look in my front window);
As we think about Christmases past and people who were here with us in the past, or new people who will be with us this year;
I want to share something with you today that is really important to my 103 year old grandmother, Tutu.
We got to be with her over the Thanksgiving holiday.
She was married to my grandfather Claude Francis DuTeil for more than 50 years.
He was an Episcopal priest in Hawai’i for his whole career, and with the help of my grandma, he started the biggest homeless shelter in the islands,
Which is called IHS, or the Institute for Human Services (also, IHS as you see on many altars are the first three letters in Jesus’ name in Greek. You can store that away for our next trivia Sunday.)
My Tutu is passionate about many things, one of which is our prayer book.
And that is because one of the main architects of the red prayerbook that you have in front of you was a seminary classmate of my grandfather’s, Charlie Price.
There are two main things that Charlie is known for in the prayerbook revision.
The first, is that amazing prayer A General Thanksgiving on page 836.
The second thing Charlie is remembered for, especially by my grandmother is the “Charlie Price comma.”
And so, in honor of the things that my grandmother would like you to know,
I’m moved to preach to you about what often goes unseen, a single comma in the Nicene Creed.
Have you ever thought about the Nicene Creed?
I mean, we say it every Sunday.
It is our main article of faith.
Did you know that our ancient Christian brothers and sisters got into fist fights about some of these lines that we breeze through every week?
Did you know that one of the main rifts between what is now the Orthodox church and the Roman church began with an argument over the word “and” in the 11th century?
We don’t always pay attention to this part of our service that closely.
I can remember as a kid, I would always think, “Oh my Lord, this thing is soooooo looooong.”
When I became a priest and began teaching confirmation classes, I remember how many of our kids were genuinely surprised by what it said, when they actually took time to read it.
And I can remember sitting with my wife’s aunt Debra at Melanie’s ordination to the Diaconate 11 years ago yesterday and seeing her moved to tears by it, because at her evangelical church they never say it.
She leaned over to me and whispered, “Oh my God, that prayer said everything I believe.”
But that’s not what I came to talk about.
I came to talk about a comma. (you can follow along if you turn to page 358 of the prayerbook)
The Creed begins, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.”
Did you see it?
“ummm… Fr. Chris, we saw five commas…”
Fair enough.
Actually all of these commas were added during the translation of the text from the original Greek, because ancient Greek doesn’t really have a robust punctuation system.
But the one that we are interested in is the one that comes right after the word “is.”
All of the commas in this first section about God separate the attributes of God.
Commas are used in many ways, but their primary job is to separate things
So, we say that God is Father, because Jesus called God Abba, the Aramaic word for Father.
We say that God is Almighty, because all things are possible for God (even becoming a human).
We say that God is the maker of heaven and earth, because God said, “let there be” and then, according to science there was a “bang,” but according to 90’s hip hop group Tag Team it was more like a “Whoomp” and there it was.
Finally, we qualify what we mean by maker of heaven and earth by adding, “everything that is, seen and unseen.”
Now do you see it?
Right after that verb “is,” there is a comma.
That is the Charlie Price comma.
Now let me tell you why it is significant.
Although it is among the most simple words in our language, the word “is” is actually highly complex.
“is” almost never stands alone.
Whereas most other verbs could be by themselves and make sense; “run!” “stop” “do the shuffle!” (okay that last one doesn’t count, but you could just say “do!”
You wouldn’t usually just say “is!”
The other thing that “is” does is that it equates things, (for those language nerds out there, this is called a predicate use)
Our priest is awesome, is a nerd, is getting to the point.
It’s an equal sign. This is that.
In the magnificat, the song of Mary, (which she sings in that part of the Gospel that is a counterpoint to “Mary did you know?” Answer: yes, she definitely knew)
In the magnificat, Mary says, “the Mighty one has done great things for me and Holy is his name.”
God’s name equals holy.
Which means that “is” can also be used poetically and symbolically through similes and metaphors.
“life is like a box of chocolates;” With like or as.
Or, “the tongue is a fire.” As James writes in his epistle.
Metaphors and similes make us ask the question, “how are these things equal to one another?”
How is life like a box of chocolates?
Answer: you never know what you’re gonna get.
“is” can also be a helping verb.
Fr. Chris is taking a long time to get back to commas.
St. Andrew’s is having a Christmas Eve service at 6pm on Tuesday night.
Or as we have from the Prophet Micah, “You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for meone who is to rule in Israel,”
In all of these uses, (a simple sentence, a metaphor or simile, a helping verb) you don’t need a comma after “is”, because the word is operating as an equal sign.
But there is one more main way that we use the word “is,” which is the way it is used before the Charlie Price comma in the Nicene Creed.
We can use “is” to designate that something exists.
St. Andrew’s is
Jesus is, was, and will be.
If you’ve ever seen an icon, those fancy paintings of saints and scenes from the Bible, then you’ve seen this use of the verb “is” without knowing it.
Icons can often look similar to one another and so icon artists often write the name of the person over their halo.
But instead of writing “Jesus,” on icons of our savior, it usually reads o wn, which is the verb “to be.”
His name then, is “the one who exists,” “the one who is.”
The magnificat has a line with this type of “is” in it, when it says, “His mercy is for those who fear Him,” or we might say it this way “His mercy exists for those who fear Him.”
So what’s the point Fr. Chris?
As always, I’m glad you asked.
The point is that in our brains, we often don’t stop to think - on a critical level - about how we’re using the word “is,” because it is probably the most commonly used word in our language.
Our brains automatically sort the meanings and revert to the easiest version.
And so, when we say the Nicene Creed what we usually do, and what Charlie Price noticed, is that we say, “maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”
We see it as an equal sign, because that is the simplest way to read it.
What ends up happening, then, is that we get a situation where we affirm that God is the maker of everything that is seen, oh and we almost forgot of those unseen things too.
It’s like when someone adds “or she,” when they’re trying to be politically correct, but they actually just meant he.
“when our new boss gets hired, he… or she… will etc…”
Too often we get solely focused on what is seen as if our experience of God and the world can only come through that type of perception;
As if things are only real if we can see them.
We get so sure of ourselves and what our reality is; what could be, what can’t be.
And so often, people will say, I have never seen evidence of God,
But the writer to the Hebrews reminds us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Or as one comedian put it, “my cat doesn’t know there’s an internet.”
Maybe what we perceive with our eyes or our minds is not the totality of everything that God can do.
This season of Christmas is about things that were improbable, impossible, and imperceivable being held by Mary and beheld in a lowly manger; bringing Joy to the World.
What this comma does, what Charlie Price wanted us to notice, and one of the things that my grandmother is most passionate about in her Christian faith is that God is the maker of everything that is (everything that exists), seen and unseen.
As we come closer to the celebration of the unseen becoming seen, the Word becoming flesh, the Christ being born in a manger, the shepherds coming to see, the Magi bringing gifts, the angels singing Hosannas;
As we prepare to receive gifts from one another, to open things that were hidden for a time, but that now we can see and touch, don’t forget the gifts that often go unseen;
The invisible work of those who bring us our food, the person who washed the dishes after dinner;
God’s call on our lives and our purpose;
the Grace that makes ordinary bread, become the Body of Christ;
love shared, faith renewed, and memories of those whom we love, but see no longer to name a few.
Some of the most important things in our lives are things that we can’t see, but we know that they exist;
Advent is about the pregnant possibilities of life that have yet to be born, have yet to be seen.
That is why Charlie Price’ comma is worth considering;
We don’t often see it, but if we stopped every once in a while to consider the things that often go unseen, we might learn something new about ourselves and our God.
And I hope you can see now, why even a comma might be worth our attention.
Let us pray.
Oh God, whose glory fills the skies. Help us to love the beauty that we can see in your creation, teach us to perceive the things you have not shown to our eyes, prepare our minds and hearts to receive You as gift for our souls, and continue to bless us with everything that is, see
Comentários