Wed. eve homily

Here's a short homily I gave for yesterday's Evening Prayer service, on Kierkegaard.

Vicar David
Reflection: Wed, 2.20.08
Kierkegaard

Once upon a time, there was a large Lutheran church in the Chicago suburbs. The had latched on to the fast growth of the suburb by promoting itself as a happy church – a pleasant place to be. There were lots of programs, lots of people, lots of smiles. They had an incredible outreach program. Greeters were well-trained in making visitors feel welcome. The music was fantastic, the Sunday school teachers top-notch. All in all, this church had it all.

But, one day, a member came up to one of the pastors. “Pastor,” she said, “I can’t be a member of this church anymore.” The pastor asked, “Why?” “I was just diagnosed with cancer, and I just can’t be in a church that’s happy all the time.”

You can’t be happy all the time. That parishioner would have found a kindred spirit in Søren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard’s life was not a happy one. He was born into a wealthy Lutheran family, known for their strict piety. His father, depressed and paranoid, was convinced that none of his children would live to see 34 years of age because he thought he had once cursed God. Think of growing up with that kind of parent. He inherited his father’s melancholy, breaking off an engagement because he thought it was against the will of God. Much of his life was spent battling the academic elite and the Danish state church. He did live past 34, but still died at a young age – at 42. I, for one, wouldn’t wish to live that kind of life.

But out of that life came some extraordinary insights into the faith. Like that parishioner, Kierkegaard realized that faith was not all sunshine and roses. Being a Christian was much more than church attendance, potlucks, and bake sales. It demanded the deepest kind of commitment. But not to anything within the grasp of reason. Being a Christian demanded commitment to the God-man, the ultimate paradox. Think about it for a second. The idea that the eternal God had come to earth, taken on finite human form, suffered and died to free us from death itself can seem the height of absurdity.

But Kierkegaard said there was power in such absurdity. Such absurdity is the wisdom of God, as Paul wrote about in1 Corinthians. The wisdom of God seems foolish to human beings, but it is Holy Foolishness – foolishness that redeems us. When we commit to Christ and that Holy Foolishness, we are making a choice that has eternal consequences. Sure, we are chosen by God as God’s children in Baptism. But like any relationship, there is a point when we choose back. In the rite of confirmation and whenever we remember our Baptism, we renew our choice for Christ and his Holy Foolishness. It’s a choice that won’t always bring sunshine and roses. The apostle Paul wrote about all the hardships he suffered for the Gospel: persecutions, sleepless nights, hunger, and so on. But it is a choice that makes us authentic “truth-witnesses”, connected to Christ and to one another. And it is a choice that brings ultimate comfort – we know that we are heirs of salvation, the free gift of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.