Bishop Budde’s first sermon: What we are doing on earth

From The Washington Post-

Editor’s Note: Rev. Dr. Mariann Edgar Budde was consecrated and seated as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington on Nov. 12 and 13. This sermon, delivered on Sunday, was the first she preached in her new position.

A young woman from another country who worked, as many immigrant women do, caring for the children of our professional class, one day heard the children in her charge yelling and carrying on in another room. She spoke English well enough, but she hadn’t yet mastered idiomatic expressions. So as she entered the room intending to restore order, when what she meant to say was “What on earth are you doing?” she said instead, “What are you doing on earth?”

Of the two questions — What on earth are you doing? and What are you doing on earth? — the latter is by far the more interesting. And it’s consistent with the kind of judgment that Jesus and all the great spiritual teachers before and after him would have us ponder from time to time. What are you doing on earth?

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/bishop-buddes-first-sermon-what-we-are-doing-on-earth/2011/11/14/gIQASL21KN_story.html