The Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, delivers his sermon “Choose Love” during the morning worship service Sunday in the Amphitheater.
In the Gospel of Luke, when Mary of Nazareth asks the angel how she could have a baby because she is still a virgin, the angel says that “nothing is impossible with God.”
“There is always another possibility,” the Most Rev. Michael Curry said. “It might not be what we want, or expect, or planned for, but there is always another possibility.” He preached at the 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title was “Hope: With God There’s Always Another Possibility,” and the scripture text was Luke 1: 26-38.
When Moses led the people out of Egypt, they were stopped by the Sea of Reeds, also known as the Red Sea. “You may have read the story in the Bible, or maybe you saw the movie with Charleton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh,” Curry said.
He continued, “This is not in the Bible, but this is what the Bible meant. As Pharaoh is on top of a cliff looking down on the people with Moses, he said with disdain, with disdain: ‘The God of Moses must not be a good general, for he gave them no way to retreat.’ ”
With God, there is always another possibility. Moses raised his arm and the people walked through the sea on dry land — and when they had safely crossed, the waters rushed back and drowned the Egyptian army.
When the angel came to Mary and told her she was going to have a baby, “she said that can’t be, because I am not married.”
Curry said, “That should have been the end of the story; it was not possible in her context, or biologically. There is always another possibility. The Spirit, the same Spirit that created the world with God ex nihilo (out of nothing), breathed new life into Mary. There’s always another possibility.”
He continued, “But it may not happen for you unless you say yes. When Mary said, ‘Let it be done with me according to your word,’ it is the Biblical way of saying ‘OK.’ ”
According to Curry, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that “God, without us, will not; as we, without God, cannot. Together with God, we can.”
“With God there are so many possibilities,” Curry added.
When he was 13 years old, Curry had a conversation with his father over something he did not want to do. When he would not do as he was asked, his father told him, “the Lord did not put you here just to consume oxygen, so go and do what I told you to do.”
“At the time I did not think the saying had much depth,” Curry said, “but it occurred to me that this really was a theological, philosophical and psychological statement, cause the Lord didn’t put us here just to breathe, just consume, just acquire for ourselves.”
He told the congregation: “We have to consume some things. We have to consume oxygen and release carbon dioxide and the plants of the world take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. We have a symbiotic creation. Only a fool says there is no God. We have to give as well as receive.”
As an example, Curry talked about the Dead Sea. Nothing lives in it because the salt deposits have poisoned the water. Water only flows into the Dead Sea, but not out; it receives, but does not give.
“We do not live by bread alone,” Curry said. “In Micah 6:8 we are called to love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with our God. Jesus said that our lives are more precious than food or clothing, as we are provided for like the lilies and the sparrows. We are put here to give. That is the way life is meant to be. God gives and receives.”
God, without us, will not; as we, without God, cannot. Together with God, we can. “The possibilities will become endless,” Curry said.
When we live a life where we give and receive, Curry told the congregation, “life may not be easy, but we can find the key to live no matter what life throws at us.”
Curry shared a story from the time he was a parish priest in Lincoln Heights, near Cincinnati. He and his family lived in the church parsonage attached directly to the church and fellowship hall. In an aside, he said: “I can’t do that much community any more.”
Behind the house was a large field and in the winter the field mice all became Episcopalian. They came into the church and the parsonage, and as hard as the vestry tried to get them under control, they had no success. “The pest control people said they used a non-violent method. I told them I was a pacifist, but not with mice,” Curry said.
The parish ran a school a few blocks away, and Curry was the chaplain. At a meeting at the school he met a man who said he had a cat to give away. The cat was getting beat up by the other cat in the house, and the dog.
Curry said, “I need Mohammed Ali, not Pee-wee Herman. When I got the cat, I asked what its name was. Muffin. I needed one named Killer.” The mouse population did not seem to decrease.
One morning, Curry was walking through the living room and saw Muffin crouching and staring at something. “Suddenly he pounced and there went Mickey Mouse. Boom! Minnie Mouse was down. One day I found half a mouse in my slipper. My wife called it an offering. I said if the parish was that generous, we could really do things. Walking through the living room was like walking through a cemetery.”
Curry grew to love Muffin, as did his dog, Bishop. “As long as Muffin was not being mistreated, he came into his own in the context,” Curry said. “When he was loved, honored and respected, he became Supercat.”
He quoted these song lyrics: “It is no secret what God can do. / What He’s done for others, / He’ll do for you.”
Curry said, “It is no secret what God can do. What God did for Muffin, God will do for you.”
Sally Goss, a lay reader in St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, presided. Debbie Grohman, a lifelong, fifth-generation Chautauquan and a Motet Choir member for 38 years, read the scripture. There was no prelude. The Motet Choir sang “Tell out, my soul,” music by David Hurd and text from Luke 1:46-55, “The Magnificat,” paraphrased by Timothy Dudley Smith. The choir was under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist celebrating his birthday on Tuesday, and accompanied by James Bobb, guest organist. The postlude, played by Stafford on the Massey Memorial Organ, was “Festival Overture,” by Isaac Van Vleck Flagler (1844-1909) who served as Chautauqua’s organist for many years. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Samuel M. and Mary E. Hazlett Memorial Fund.
