The CATHEDRAL TIMES The weekly newsletter of the Cathedral of St. Philip · Serving Atlanta and the World ·September 19, 2021
TWO SUNDAY SERMONS FROM DEAN SAM CANDLER Excerpts from the sermon and Evensong meditation by the Very Rev. Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral, last Sunday, September 12, as we continue to re-engage in-person. Read or watch the full sermons at cathedralATL.org MORNING SERMON: LOSING, GIVING UP THINGS, AND LOSING GRACIOUSLY …If you want to save your life, you must lose it. That is the heart of the Christian gospel, straight from the mouth of Jesus our Lord. …most of us are called, are led, to the daily losses. Jesus calls us, most of the time, to the daily giving up of ourselves. Daily, we learn to lose things. Daily, we learn to give way, to give up our desires, for the sake of
someone else. The heart of the Christian gospel is that we learn to give up things every day; we give up our lives every day. Being a follower of Jesus Christ does not magically make us happy, or get us good jobs, or make us lots of money, or get us elected as political leaders. Or get us a good boyfriend or girlfriend. Being a follower of Jesus Christ does not even cure us of cancer or get rid of the demons inside us. Sometimes it does. And that is wonderful. But it is not why Jesus calls us to follow him. Jesus calls us to follow him because he desires for us to discover who we truly are. We are supposed to be giving up things, giving up things, giving up things, not piling on things. In that giving up of our lives, we learn who we truly are; and we learn who God is. EVENSONG MEDITATION: THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD …Psalm 19 tells us that, “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” Yes, the heavens are telling the glory of God! But is anybody up there actually hearing what the heavens are telling? There is no sound in space. Not even by Gustav Holst. Of course, we all realize that God is not just “up there” where we imagine heaven is. Surely, God is as much present right here as God is present miles up into space. Still, when we say, “heavens,” we probably refer to the skies, space, outer space, the deep sky. Does anybody hear up there, or even down here? We are here today, at Evensong in the Cathedral, rejoicing in the opportunity, the mere and splendid opportunity to sing, in person. We rejoice in the opportunity to hear each other again. Maybe the sound is a bit muffled. Safety still requires that we wear masks – just like they do in outer space, actually. But we are rejoicing. We can see each other. We can hear each other. …Sure, we have spoken to our own selves, and meditated in our own hearts, but something else happens when we pray, and sing, together. Something else happens. When we gather together for music and singing and community, our space becomes sacred. We hear in a different way. We hear in such a way that God is truly present.