Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
17th Sunday after Pentecost
Many Anglophiles are aware of an English situation comedy titled, “To the Manor Born.” The setting is an old English estate that has been in the same family for generations, but has gone the way of so many such places in England and Europe today. The head of the household died and left his widow, Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton, played by Penelope Keith, without the funds to keep the place going. She sold the manor to Richard Devere, a wealthy Czechoslovakian merchant who speaks perfect English, and then she moved to the gatekeeper’s cottage on the edge of the property.
With this as a background, each episode revolves around the encounter between the aristocratic Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton, who knows everybody and everybody’s business and who is unable to support herself in the manner to which she has always been accustomed, and Mr. Devere, who has lots of money but who never does anything the way the owner of an English manor should do it, at least according to Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton.
In one episode, Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton reminded Mr. Devere that the next Sunday was an annual event for the owner of the manor. This was the Sunday that he was supposed to read the first lesson in church. Mr. Devere reminded Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton that he never attends church and that he is not even a member of the Church of England. To that, Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton, in all seriousness, responded, “This tradition has nothing to do with religion. It is your civic duty to read on this Sunday in church!” And so that next Sunday Mr. Devere was dutifully in church, reading the first lesson as the owner of the manor.
Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton has her life neatly arranged into compartments. This compartment is for civic duties, this one for religion, this one for social responsibilities, this one for volunteer work, and so on, with her faith playing no greater part, and perhaps even a lesser part, than the other compartments. What a far cry this is from the faith presented to us in myriad ways in the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament!
We all tend to compartmentalize our lives to make them more manageable. What we do in church is worship, according to some, and what we do in vestry meetings is business—the church’s business, granted, but still business. When many of us went through confirmation training we found that our worship could be divided into compartments—praise, prayer, and instruction. “You stand to praise, kneel to pray, and sit for instruction,” we were told.
Yet such a division is an oversimplification to the point of being false. What is our praise to God if not prayer? What are we doing when we hear the Word of God read and proclaimed, if not praying? We may not be saying anything, but God is talking to us. Is that not prayer? If our vestry meetings are not an offering to God, then a change certainly needs to be made. The same needs to be said of Men’s Ministry meetings, Women’s Outreach Ministry, youth meetings, Sunday School classes, and every other parish activity.
Today’s psalm says, “Let the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore. From the rising of the sun to its going down let the name of the Lord be praised.” The psalm doesn’t say, “Let the name of the Lord be blessed one hour a week, or whenever the spirit moves.” It says, “Let the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore.” Always, in every part of your life, in every activity, in your homes, your workplaces, in every decision, in every compartment of your neatly or not so neatly arranged life let the name of the Lord be blessed. Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton was wrong, for the head of the manor’s reading of the first lesson is all about religion. As the leader of the manor his reading of the lesson should be a sign of his leading his household in godly living.
In a little while we will pray with this understanding in mind, for the celebrant prays in the eucharistic prayer that “it is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy father, almighty, everlasting God”—not just when we’re in church, or before we eat, or when we go to bed, but at all times and in all places let the name of the Lord be blessed.
When we go about our business, not only taking time for formal prayer, which we should surely do, but also offering every act to God, the result will be that we are offering ourselves to the divine power, most fully revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is greater than all of our schemes, intelligences, and emotions. Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke once about all of the various sound waves that are in the air. Political discussions, operas, country and western music, world news, and so on are all available for the taking, but to avail ourselves of them we must tune in. The artist Holman Hunt painted a picture of Jesus standing at an ivy-covered door. An admirer commented that there was no latch on the outside of the door. Hunt replied, “Of course. The door must be opened from the inside.”
Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton was wrong. Mr. Devere’s reading of the first lesson had everything to do with religion, not just because it was in a religious service, but because every act of a human being should be an offering to God. We are called to bless the Lord at all times. When we do, our Lord is available to assist us with his grace in every occasion in our lives. Often he helps us in spite of ourselves, but how much more he can do if we tune in, if we unlatch the door, with a spirit of prayer. “Let the name of the Lord be blessed from this time forth for evermore.”