The Rev. Gary Mongillo

Pentecost 5C ~ Proper 8
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Grace Episcopal Church

“Journey with Jesus”

One of the things I do when preparing for a sermon is to Google the scripture lessons for today and see what comes up.  Then I read several commentaries on the lessons and meditate on those for a while.  I usually go through several books I have that might also give me some insight into what the writers are trying to teach.  This, along with periods of prayer and meditation help me to write what you are now hearing as my sermon.

I tell you this because this is what I did for several hours last night when I sat down and began to write, and what I wrote was the title.  I always give my sermon a title even though I am the only one who ever see it.  I wrote “Journey with Jesus”, and then I sat down in our recliner and thought about how I like to think of life as a journey, a journey with a specific goal, a goal to become all that God meant me to be.  I thought about how important it was to be open to God’s voice and more importantly to recognize God’s voice above the noise and distractions of life and especially to be able to hear God’s voice above my own.

I was thinking all these things when my wife looked up and saw that all I had written so far was the title “Journey with Jesus”.  She commented, “Is that how far you have gotten after all this time?”  What she didn’t realize is that for me, there was years of learning, of failing, of repenting, of learning some more and a determination to stay the course no matter what obstacles are in the way; I have set my face not to Jerusalem but to Jesus.

What I would like to share with you today is some of my journey because that is what these readings cause me to recall.

I grew up in an Italian Roman Catholic household that went to church every Sunday and Holy days.  My father often read to us at night from the Bible and on many a weekend we would travel to some shrine and then stop afterwards for ice cream.

This continued until my mother passed away, and then we stopped going to church, though I continued to pray; I was ten years old.  When I was fifteen, I started using drugs and made my first trip to Greenwich Village.

When I was sixteen, I dropped out of school and went to work; I was doing more drugs.  As time went on I decided to go back to school:  I got my High School diploma and then I went to college at night.  Also during this time I started to have doubts about God and searched for other answers, looking everywhere but to Him.

During this time, I also got married and bought a house, and for a time everything looked good:  I had a job, I was going to school, and I had a wife and home.  I didn’t need God; I was doing O.K. without Him; so I thought.

What I didn’t realize was that I had become a slave; a slave to drugs, because I no longer did them for fun, but because without them, I didn’t feel like I was myself.  I was a slave to idolatry, because I thought of only myself.

Then one day, the bottom dropped out, my wife after six years of marriage told me she wanted a divorce. Now I don’t believe God causes bad things to happen to us to get His attention, but I do believe that they can become wake calls to us that maybe we do need Him in our lives.

I started to read the bible and watch religious shows on TV.  I joined a prayer group and started to go to church again; my Uncle Andy, a Deacon in the Church, helped in my journey at this time, and little by little, I began to realize what Jesus meant when He talked about setting us free.

I have come to realize that we can become slaves to just about anything; yes, there are the addictions we can have to drugs, sex, or alcohol, but we can also be slaves to many, many things including our jobs - spending so much time away from our children that we miss seeing them grow up.

One of my favorite movies is called Hook, starring Robin Williams, who becomes such a person.  He doesn’t spend time with his children though they keep asking him to; he is too busy with his job.  Then one day, through some strange happenings he ends up in a place called Neverland, and slowly, with the help of a bunch of kids, he remembers who he is - who he really is.  He is Peter Pan.  He had gotten so caught up in life that he lost his identity - he forgot.  He forgot who he was and what was important; and then, because he had remembered a happy thought, that thought being his family, he awoke to become the person he was meant to be.

The Scriptures were written, and Christ was born, to awaken us to who we are:  children not of Neverland, but children of the Kingdom of God.  And once we are awake, we are to help others awaken so that they too can know the freedom we enjoy; this is what the Church is called to do.

Jesus knew who He was, and He never lost sight of what He was called to do:  which was to teach others who they were.  He knew that he had to go Jerusalem.  He had to bring this good news to the heart of the Jewish community.  He also knew that this could bring about His death, but He stayed the course.

Now on His way, He met people who were not free, but who were still caught up in the things which enslaved them:  The Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other - each one thinking they worshiped the correct way.  They were slaves of prejudice.  Jesus tells James and John to not let prejudice get in the way of them being free.

Then He meets a person who says he will follow Jesus wherever He goes, but doing the work of the Lord isn’t about a place Jesus goes to, but about spreading the Kingdom of God wherever we are.

Another tells Jesus that He must first bury his father before he follows Him.  Jesus’ answer seems harsh:  “Let the dead bury the dead, go spread the Kingdom of God.”  The point again being that we are never to stop being children of God; that even with the death of a loved one, we bring the Kingdom of God into our loss by remembering that in Jesus there is new life.

Another said to Jesus, “I will follow you Lord but first let me say goodbye to my family.” Jesus tells him as He tells us:  don’t look back on your old life; we are a new creation in Christ; the old is past.

The beginning of Galatians says, “For Freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

For freedom in Christ can never be taken away; we can be free no matter where we are: at home, at work, in jail or even on a cross.  It is a freedom that allows the Kingdom of God to spread, bringing with it love, peace and joy.  May God be with us on our journey and may the Holy Spirit guide us as we follow Jesus, who is the way.

Let us pray:  Almighty God, Our heavenly Father, we gather in Your house this day, bringing to You our praise, our words and our prayers.  Make us aware of our need for You in our daily lives, and help us to know how ready You are to answer that need in us.  Help us too be conscious of our faults and weaknesses, and to know how ready You are to forgive us and enable us to learn from our mistakes, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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