St. Mary’s Episcopal Church: Recent Episodes
Saint Mary's Episcopal Church - Eugene, OR
Sermons and other recordings from St. Mary's Episcopal Church has been in downtown Eugene for over 150 years to worship, serve, and grow in faith. Guided by the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, we value community, inclusiveness, compassion, our living tradition, health, and collaborative leadership. All are welcome at St. Mary's, no matter what age, ethnicity or race, gender identity, sexual orientation or economic and social circumstances.
Our second reading today comes from the Book of Revelation, which is the last book in the Bible. But before we talk about the reading from Revelation, we need to go back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. We go all the way back to the beginning, in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. Do you recognize that phrase, heavens and earth? We heard it in Revelation today. In the beginning when God created the earth, it was a formless void, welter and waste, and the Holy Spirit moved over the waters of the Creation. God spoke and said, let there be light. And there was light, and God said that it was good. Each day goes on like this. The next day God takes the waters and separates them. The waters below, which are called seas, the dome, called sky, and the waters above, which we call outer space. The next day those waters below, the seas, are separated so the earth can be seen. Then God creates vegetation, the plants, the trees, the seeds, the fruits. The next day God creates the sun and the moon and the stars. The next day, all the animals that go in those seas and go in the sky--the fish, the whales, the dolphins, the oysters, clams, shrimp, and all those wonderful birds up in the sky. The next day God creates all the land animals. At the end of each day God looks out over the Creation and says, it is good, it is good, it is very, very good. Then God takes a day to rest.
At the end of the Creation of all those land animals, he creates one more land animal, which is you and me. We are made in God’s image, and God tells us to take care of this Creation that he has made. God asks us to be the stewards of His good Creation.
Then Genesis tells us another Creation story. The order of things is a little different, but in this Creation story it is basically asking the question: if all of this is good, why does it seem that everything in this world is so messed up? This is the main thing about this Creation story, but there is still the theme that we are meant to be taking care of God’s Creation.
Now let’s go back to Revelation. It says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, referencing the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. God is creating a new heaven and a new earth. Creation is about the past, Revelation is about the future, which we call the eschatology, the end times, when God is going to come again. So while in the beginning we are talking about Creation, in the end we are talking about salvation and whatever that means, and scholars have written tomes about that topic. I will simply say that Revelation is addressing whatever salvation means. But notice that in this salvific moment, this eschatological moment way out in the future that has not yet happened but will occur, God says there is going to be a new Creation. In this Creation there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
What we have in both of these stories is God is telling us that Creation matters to God. It is good, and it is our work to help take care of it, to steward it. It nourishes us, it gives us food, it gives us drink, we have in the new Creation springs that are giving us life. We are connected to the Creation, we are related to it, and we have the sense that it matters to God, both in the past and in the end.
If it matters to God in the past, and it matters to God at the end, then it matters to God now, too. Creation matters in this present moment. The commandment to take care of this Creation, to be stewards of it, never went away. It is still there. We are still meant to take care of this Creation, to see its goodness and to tend to it. Of course we use it to nourish us, but not to abuse it. Remember that it does not belong to us, it belongs to God and we are its stewards.
One of my favorite interpretations of the Creation story comes from Desmond Tutu in his Children’s Bible. He says that Creation comes about because God’s love bubbled up and spilled over into Creation. All of Creation is a manifestation of God’s love. In Revelation, the new Creation is a manifestation of God’s love, a love so intense that as it says, God is going to dwell there in this new Creation with us. God’s greatest desire is to be with us in this new Creation, all manifestations of God’s love. When we hear in the Gospel reading that we are to love one another, I do not think that God means that we are only to love other people. We are meant to love this good earth that God has made and entrusted to us.
So, my friends, take care of this planet. Take care, be stewards of this Creation as God has asked us to do because it matters to God. And you are a part of the Creation, and you matter to God, as well.
AMEN.
Traditional
Let us pray: O God, whose son Jesus is the good shepherd of thy people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calleth us each by name, and follow where he doth lead; who, with thee and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Contemporary
Let us pray: O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
This fourth Sunday of Easter is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. In today’s world, I doubt many of us know too much about shepherds and sheep. Here’s something I learned last year. Sheep recognize and only respond to the voice of their shepherd. You can call and yell and coo and coax all you want, but if you’re not the shepherd it doesn’t matter. I saw a YouTube video of a shepherd with his sheep and he invited several different people, including other shepherds, to try and get the sheep’s attention. They called and called and cajoled, all to no end. Nothing. Until…their shepherd called them and then… instant recognition and response. Quite amazing. Shepherds know each of their sheep and give them names. And sheep recognize their shepherd. A good shepherd is guide, protector, and provider. This is the image for us as God’s sheep. Jesus calls us each by name because he knows us, guides, leads and protects us.
Jesus is our good shepherd calling us each by name. Have you ever considered this amazing fact? Jesus is calling each and every one of us by our names! (Insert several parishioners’ names)
To call someone by their name implies relationship. Knowing someone’s name is powerful. Over my 22 years of teaching, I learned thousands of names of the teenagers in my classes. Until I learned and could remember a student’s name, I couldn’t fully reach out and connect with them. I couldn’t know them. Names are important! Taking the time to learn and correctly pronounce someone’s name shows you care. It shows honor, value, and respect. Learning, remembering, and using someone’s name can also be quite intimate. Do you have a special name that only certain people call you? God knows your name! Do you have a nickname? Or a special name that only a few people use with you? My middle name is Jacob, but only my dad and my older brother ever call me Jake. It’s our special thing. Families, partners, friends may all have these very personal and intimate names for each other. God desires to be in relationship with you in the most intimate way too. Having created you, God knows everything about you. Everything that makes you the amazing, unique, human being you are. Ponder this for a moment. When God calls each of us by our names, God lets us know that we are intimately known, seen, and valued. All of our quirks, weaknesses, worries, secret hopes and joys, God calls us to bring it all into our relationship with the divine.
Remember when Mary went to the tomb after Jesus’ crucifixion to take care of his body and the risen Christ was there, but she couldn’t recognize him? Until…he called her by her name, Mary. And she and cried out Rabbi! Honored teacher!
And in today’s resurrections story about the beloved woman who cared and created for so many in her community. When Peter called her name, Tabitha, she returned from the dead to continue to care for her community. There are many stories in scripture of God calling people by their names or even giving them new names.
In our collect for today we pray: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him…
But how can we be sure? There are lots of different people and things calling for our attention. How can we know that we’re hearing Jesus? How can we recognize his voice? God created us in and out of love and for love. And God’s call to us is love. The frequency of God’s call is goodness and mercy, compassion and forgiveness, welcome and healing. If we look for beauty, care, and community around us, we are attuning our ears to God’s call. When we marvel at the splendor of nature, when we honor and care for God’s creation, when we smile at kids and families at play, at teenagers discovering their passions and identities, when we see people gathered in community coming together to care for the needy, little acts of kindness and compassion, people helping others through the toughest times, it is then that we hear God’s voice and recognize our Good Shepherd calling us, inviting us to follow.
In today’s collect we also pray that we may follow where God leads.
But where are we led? Having been made in love, working to receive and believe we are loved and lovable, then we must broadcast that healing love to others and to our world. Jesus our Good Shepherd is calling us by name, guiding, protecting and leading us into good works. Together, as beloved community, we are being led to bring this call of love to our hurting, broken and polarized world. Following Jesus’ lead, we are called to broadcast compassion, mercy, and community wherever we go, to share how we’ve been loved, how we’ve heard Jesus call us by name, and how that call is not just for us, but for everyone. Listen carefully, God is calling out to you, calling you by name, inviting you into relationship, inviting you to help bring love into our world today. Will you hear that call and enter into the loving care of our Good Shepherd today? Listen for God’s call for your life.
Amen.
Our Gospel that we just heard is from the Epilogue of John’s Gospel. Why do I call it an epilogue? The last two weeks we have been hearing stories of the Resurrection. We heard on Easter Day the story of Mary Magdalene encountering the Risen Lord, and last week we heard about several of the Disciples who were gathered in a locked room when Jesus appeared. But Thomas wasn’t there, so one week later we heard that Jesus did the same thing, and this time Thomas was there and had the chance to encounter the Risen Lord.
Then John’s Gospel, as we heard last week, said “the end.” Now, it didn’t really say that. What John said was that there was a lot more stuff that Jesus did, that there were mores signs that were remarkable and wonderful, but he didn’t include all of them. He just picked these because they are great ones and this should be enough for you to hear and believe, and if you believe you will have life. That is the end. But yet we have a whole other chapter to the story. It is an epilogue. We have the full narrative part completed, and then we get one more vignette that is related, but kind of different. And that is what we have today, an epilogue.
What is the point of an epilogue? An epilogue is sometimes forward looking, saying something about the future, setting up a sequel, like at the end of a Marvel movie where after the credits there is a little hint of something coming. More traditionally, the epilogue is tying up loose ends and emphasizing some main, critical points the author wants to make. I think that is what is happening in John’s Gospel. But there is an element of forward looking, because the Disciples have gone back home and gone back to work. So Jesus does have to come again and call them again to follow him. Just because I am raised from the dead it doesn’t mean you can’t follow me any more. There is work to do. So it is a fore-looking epilogue in this regard.
But there are also loose ends to wrap up. What loose ends are there? One of the most important loose ends that this Gospel reading today is wrapping up is that Peter had denied Jesus three times. So how is it that Peter is this important guy if he denied Jesus three times? This Gospel is dealing with that. The clue to this is that really weird detail about the charcoal fire. Why does it matter that there was a charcoal fire? It matters because it only comes up one other time in the Gospel, and that is when Jesus denies Peter three times. After the Last Supper, after Gethsemane, after the arrest, Peter follows Jesus into the inner court where there is a charcoal fire that they are warming themselves by. There Peter is asked three questions about his relationship with Jesus, and each time he says I do not know him.
So what do we have in this part of the Gospel? Peter by a charcoal fire being asked three questions about Jesus and his relationship with him. Peter’s answer is, I love you. It is reversing what happened in the denial. It is his restoration. In this moment Jesus gives Peter three more opportunities, one for each of Peter’s denials, to say I love you, and Jesus restores him. Peter is able with the Psalmist to say, you have restored my life, O Lord.
This is interesting. What is more interesting is how it is that Jesus restores Peter, but this gets lost in translation. Remember this was not written in English. Typically, most languages have fewer words than English. The English language has a lot of words. When we translate Greek and Hebrew, the English translation has many more words than the original Greek or Hebrew. We like our English synonyms, sometimes because we want to add context or nuance, sometimes we think it boring to repeat the same word. So when we read an English translation, we find that there are many different words, but in the Greek or Hebrew it is the exact same word over and over again.
Today’s reading is the opposite. There are multiple words in Greek for love, but only one word in English. This Gospel reading uses multiple words for love that we don’t see. The two words for love used in the reading today are agape and philia. Philia is the brotherly love that has good feelings attached to it. Agape love, in Greek religious Scripture, is a higher form of love. It is understood, in first century religious communities, to be the divine love. So when John says, for God so loved the world, it is agape love. When it says in Deuteronomy, and when Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, it is agape love. It is the great love. When Jesus says to love your enemies, it is agape love. We don’t have to have warm feelings toward our enemies, we just need to love them. It is that high, deep love that Jesus is asking of us, but it does not have to be full of warm, squiggly feelings. So we have the higher love of agape, and the important, but slightly lower love, of philia.
Jesus comes to Peter and asks, do you agape love me? And Peter says, yes, I philia love you. Did Peter actually answer the question? So Jesus asks the second time, do you agape love me? And Peter says, yes, I philia love you. This is interesting. This is supposed to undo the denials, but is there a sense that Peter is still denying Jesus? Jesus is asking him do you agape love me, and Peter does not say yes, I agape love you. He says, yes, I love you in a different way, and this way is not as rich and deep and divine and holy as the way that Jesus is asking.
So the third time that Jesus asks the question, he asks do you philia love me? And Peter says, yes I philia love you. Jesus comes to Peter and asks do you love me in this awesome way, and Peter says I love you in the philia way. Jesus tries again: do you love me in this awesome agape way, and Peter says I love you in this philia way. Jesus says, OK. Do you love me in the philia way? And Peter says, yes, I love you in the philia way. Jesus does not berate Peter, he doesn’t require that Peter is perfect. Jesus’s desire for Peter is that he loves in the way that Jesus loves. That was the New Commandment. Love as I have loved. Love in this amazing agape way for me, for the world. Love like this is love in a perfect way. When Peter falls short of that, Jesus doesn’t say you’re out. Jesus comes and meets him right where he is. Can you do this Peter? Yes. Let’s try again: can you do this Peter? Yes. OK—I am coming right beside you Peter: can you do this? And Peter says Yes. Jesus says good. Now follow me. Jesus meets him where he is.
Isn’t that what Jesus is doing in the Incarnation? When God comes to earth, God is coming to meet us where we are. In the Incarnation, God is saying I want to be there right where you are. I have these dreams for you, but if we don’t make them, I will still love you. I’m still going to be with you. I will still care for you, and we’re going to work together on this. I hope I can lift you up, I hope we can get there, but if not I will come right where you are.
That is what Jesus does with us. Jesus meets us in all of our imperfections, in all of our limitations, right where we are. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to get it, to be perfect, to have that perfect, deep, rich love that God wants for the entire world and everybody within it. God meets us right where we are and says, I love you. Let’s walk together.
Do you agape love me? Yes, I philia love you. Do you agape love me? Yes, I philia love you. Do you philia love me? Yes, I philia love you. OK. That’s good enough. I love you, too.
AMEN.
Let us pray: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God. Amen.
Today we continue with more of Jesus’ radical teaching. A quick recap of past episodes:
Jesus declares his mission statement and ours, as he reads from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
From there he goes on healing and restoring, bringing outsiders in and lifting up those who’ve been cast down. The word spreads and everyone wants to come see and touch and be healed and miraculous healing power flows from Jesus healing EVERYONE.
Then he begins his biggest chunk of teaching, The Sermon on the Mount or the Plain as he pronounces the blessings or beatitude and the woes. Blessings on those who are suffering now, with the promise of accompaniment and future satisfaction, fulfillment and joy. And although I didn’t get to them last week, the woes that Jesus’ pronounces on those who are already full, rich, satisfied and laughing. These warnings AND sympathetic words of Jesus for those who think they’ve found contentment and satisfaction, when they haven’t. When they’ve only found fleeting happiness outside of the sustaining presence of a relationship with God.
Today, Jesus continues with more of his countercultural pronouncements of how to live in kinship with God, one another, and creation. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. What? These are the exact opposites of what we’ve been taught to do, right? Or at least what society tells us, what society values. Turn the other check?
Jesus is holding up a different way. It’s the way of love. We’re to see and interact and treat others the way we want to be treated. Actually, that makes pretty good sense, doesn’t it? We treat people kindly and with respect and we expect them to do the same. But what happens when they don’t? Then we can get mad and be rude and disrespectful, right? No Jesus says. In fact, no matter how much we might want to, and recognizing how hard it can be, Jesus says that we are to treat them BETTER than they treat us, we’re to respond with kindness and blessings. Wow!
After all, Jesus says, if we’re only nice to nice people, how does that show the extraordinary love and grace of God? If we share with people knowing they’ll return the favor, what’s new or different about that? That doesn’t really take much effort or extra love, does it? But loving our enemies, wow, who does that? Who CAN do that? Have you heard these amazing stories about people forgiving others who have really harmed them or their loved ones? I mean, those are powerful, aren’t they?
Now I want to stop here for just a moment and be very clear that Jesus is NOT advocating remaining in abusive relationships. It is NEVER OK for others to disrespect our human dignity as children of God. And we can and should take steps to protect ourselves and others from abuse of any kind. BUT, what Jesus IS saying is that we don’t have to return hate with hate, nor disrespect with disrespect, nor evil with evil. No. What Jesus showed and taught and modeled for us is to love everyone impartially, respecting their dignity, and seeking the goodness and love with which they were created. This is how God treats us, right? Jesus says that we’ll be children of the Most High when we act this way. God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, causing the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). Jesus calls us to be merciful as God is merciful. And he tells us not to judge or condemn others. Instead, we are to forgive, and in so doing we’ll be forgiven. Does this sound familiar? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Jesus exhorts us to share what we have, if anyone asks us for help, as much as we can, we are to help them. What happens when we give and share and care for others? Aren’t we often JUST as much the beneficiaries of this giving as the one we’re giving to? Jesus goes further about what we’ll get in return when we act in love. He says, when you follow me in acts of love and kindness, watch out! It will come back to you in overflowing, unexpectedly abundant ways. You know when you’re baking and you just pack the brown sugar down into the cup, or you tap the flour to get more in? Jesus says our blessings from acting in love will be so great that they’ll come overflowing back to us, right in our laps! If we measure out God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy for others in our lives, then that’s what we’ll get back, plus some! Extra peace, grace, and mercy from our good and loving God.
I don’t pretend that following these teaching of Jesus is easy. But I also know that we don’t do it alone. We have each other. We have Jesus who knows how tough it can be. And we have the power of the Holy Spirit working with us, through us, in us and all around us. Finally, and this really helps me, I know that I don’t have to be perfect. I’ll repeat that. WE don’t have to be perfect followers of Jesus. We just have to try. Period. And God takes our efforts and the desires of our hearts and smiles on them, and on us, and blesses them, and they are enough. They are more than enough, as together we work to show and share a new way of being in relationship with others. The way of Jesus is a way that honors each person just as they are. A way that shows love and kindness, even in the face of hatred. After all, as follower of Jesus, we know that in the end, love will always win. Amen.
Let us pray: God of love and life, enliven these words, speak to our hearts of the fullness of life found in relationship with you. Amen.
At this point in Jesus’ ministry, word has really begun to spread, and people are coming from all over, Luke tells us it was a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Everybody, Jews and Gentiles from all around were coming to see and hear and, if they were lucky, touch or be touched by this amazing new teacher. Luke says they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. Jesus taught them, healed and restored them, and cured them from spiritual and mental angst. And get this next line from Luke: And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Power came out from him and healed all of them, all of them! Wow! What is going on here? Jesus is demonstrating divine power, love, and restoration to everyone, everyone! And after this amazing, loving care, healing liberation and restoration, Jesus begins to teach laying out a radical new way of understanding our human lives on this earth.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
To be poor is to be blessed? Yes, says Jesus. If you are poor, poor in what you own or don’t own, or poor in spirit, lacking, struggling, then, Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is yours. You’re close, SO much closer than others, to the Kingdom of God, to relationship with the divine, to blessings and reliance and satisfaction with the little you do have. With our things out of the way we can more easily turn to God and rely on God’s loving care. You may feel like you are at the bottom, but Jesus says that you own the whole kingdom! When we’re feeling low and down and like we don’t have much at all, Jesus reminds us that the whole Kingdom is ours through our relationship with the divine.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
When people want for food, or want for direction, or guidance, or justice, they are blessed? Yes! Because they WILL be filled. They will find what they are looking for. God will provide for their needs. They will find satisfaction, what they were seeking, what they were hungering for will be found in relationship with their loving God. You may be hungry now, but you WILL be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”
To weep and mourn in sadness is a blessing? Yes! Through God, and with God, and our Christian community, we are not alone in our grief and sadness. God, in Jesus, knows our human suffering and walks with us in it and through it all. Nothing, nothing, can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus promises that we WILL find joy and laughter again. Psalm 30 reminds us that weeping may endure the night, but joy comes in the morning!
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."
We’re blessed when people hate us, exclude us, insult us and spread rumors about us? Yes! When it’s because we’re acting in love and compassion and out of care for ourselves, for others, and for creation as followers of Jesus, yes. While others may put us down, God picks us up and smiles at our efforts to seek and serve Christ in everyone, to work for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. God is the great INCLUDER, inviting and reminding us of our beloved status as children made IN love, BY love and FOR love. In God’s family EVERYONE belongs!
These were radical notions for people in Jesus’ time, and they continue to be radical and countercultural today. But this is the kindom or kinship that Jesus came to show and that he announced with his mission statement in the synagogue at Nazareth. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
This work of following Jesus in our world is not easy, but it is good and right and just. It is healthy and life-giving, working together for the good of all people and for the good of our planet. And while we may feel at times as if we are lacking, remember that the kinship of God is ours, and while we may be weeping, mourning and grieving our losses, we WILL find joy and laughter again, and when people do or say mean things to us, take heart, God is with us! And remember that we are not alone in being criticized for caring and loving and sharing with others, all those who came before us faced the same abuse, if not worse. We are connected to them and with them in the great cloud of witnesses, showing and sharing God’s loving-kindness for all of God’s children and all of God’s creation. Blessed are we! Amen.
In today’s readings we hear about Peter and from Paul, two of the giants of early Christianity. Contemporaries, they became followers of Jesus very differently, though they reportedly met the same end, martyred by Nero in Rome.
At the time Jesus began his ministry Peter was a fisherman who apparently fished with his brother Andrew and their partners James and John. Based on the fact he was sometimes called Simon, or Simon Peter, he was likely not simply an Aramaic-speaking Jew but rather one who knew at least some Greek as well as Aramaic and perhaps Hebrew. Peter is believed to have lived in Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee where he and his brother and their friends fished.
As today’s gospel makes clear, Peter and his fellow fishermen were the first people called by Jesus to follow him. Awestruck by the haul of fish they brought in when Jesus ordered him and Andrew to lower their nets after a night of catching nothing, Peter immediately fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to leave, saying he was unworthy to even be in Jesus’ presence. Well no. Jesus not only didn’t leave but instead called all four of this team of fishermen to follow him. Leaving everything, they did exactly that. It seems that however unworthy Peter may have felt initially, it didn’t stop him from going with Jesus when Jesus called him to do so. Over time he became the leader of the twelve disciples, a leadership role that continued after the resurrection as the Christian community grew. It appears Jesus really relied on Peter. Peter, James, and John were the three disciples Jesus took up the mountain with him the day of the transfiguration. He took the same three with him to the part of Gethsemane where he prayed the night he was arrested. Yet as much as Jesus counted on Peter, we know Peter made Jesus really angry from time to time, most famously when he tried to persuade Jesus not to go to Jerusalem. Soon after that we hear about the infamous scene in the courtyard where Peter denied even knowing Jesus not once but three times. All this tells us that even though Peter became one of the most important leaders of the early church, he had the same human failings we all do. Like human beings of every age, fear sometimes got the best of him. Why wouldn’t he have tried to convince Jesus not to go to Jerusalem? Jesus was his friend, and he knew the Jewish authorities were determined to silence him. He didn’t want Jesus to put himself in harm’s way. But Jesus knew what he had to do, so Peter’s cautionary advice was not helpful, as Jesus made very clear with his response to Peter’s comments. As for what Peter probably regarded as his worst failing ever, his threefold denial that he even knew Jesus as he waited in the courtyard for news of what was happening in Jesus’ trial before the high priest, it was again fear that got the best of him. Yet in spite of his momentary lapses, we know that Peter was invaluable to the early church. Peter is often described as a sort of bumbling everyman who was forever getting things wrong, but that’s really not fair. Peter was a courageous, down to earth fisherman who ultimately came to love Jesus more than life itself.
It appears it would have been after the resurrection and the first Pentecost that Peter met Paul. Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as he was originally known, was born to Jewish parents who were Roman citizens, which means that he was a Roman citizen as well. It’s believed that his family moved from Tarsus, in modern-day Turkey, to Jerusalem in 10 CE, when he was still a child. A few years later he began his studies of Hebrew Scripture and then the law. Having grown up to be a pharisee by the time the Christian community began to grow, Saul was vehemently opposed to faithful Jews becoming followers of Jesus. He worked to arrest and imprison both male and female members of this growing branch of Judaism. We know he was present at the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, because scripture tells us the others laid their cloaks at his feet. It was while he was on the way to Damascus to arrest and extradite more Christians back to Jerusalem that Saul had what one might consider to be the most famous ah-ha moment of all time. Unable to see the light of Christ when Jesus was still walking the earth, Saul was temporarily blinded by a flash of light on the road as he heard a voice he understood to be that of Jesus asking him why he had been persecuting him. Saul collapsed, and when he got up, his spiritual blindness now having become physical, his friends had to lead him into Damascus. After three days, Ananias, a Christian leader who did not want to go anywhere near Saul, having heard what he had been doing to Christians in Jerusalem, went to him because he had been told in a vision to do so, and restored Saul’s vision. Upon regaining his sight, Saul’s spiritual blinders fell off as well, he was immediately baptized and well, you know the rest of his story. He took the name of Paul, and switched from being one of the most zealous persecutors of Christians to the early church’s most famous missionary.
There’s an extremely important message for us here, especially in these contentious times. Paul’s conversion tells us that we need to be very careful about writing people off as “one of them,” as someone who’s simply too different from us in whatever way we want to name, for us to relate to them, work with them, find common ground with them. Paul’s story tells us that people can change. Not everyone will of course, but anyone can, so we need to be open to that possibility.
The reason we pay attention to these stories, the reason we bother to read the Bible at all is that, as much as the world has changed in 2000 years, the human condition has not. Now, as then, the vast majority of people are governed by a powerful few, some of whom are basically good, some of whom are utterly corrupt, most a mixture of the two. But surrounding those powerful few are people like Peter the fisherman, Paul the pharisee, people like you and like me, in whom God sees great potential. Some, like Peter, say yes immediately to God’s call, others like Paul require a figurative two by four to the head, but in the end, using the hands and hearts of all those who ultimately say yes, God can do great things.
A story: Once upon a time about 19 years ago, I was a member of the Standing Committee when Bernie Lindley came before us. Bernie is from Brookings, the son of a crab fisherman who earned a degree at Willamette University before returning to Brookings and the family business. With time Bernie realized he felt called to be a priest. A family man with two children by then he wasn’t able to just pick up and go to seminary for three years, so he enrolled in the School for the Diaconate, led in those days by our very own Deacon Penny Berktold, in order to get as much training as he could that way. After Bernie left the Standing Committee interview that day, I remember thinking to myself after interacting with this down to earth, deeply spiritual fisherman, I just met Peter. While I know those of us on the Committee would have liked to ordain Bernie on the spot, Bishop Itty required him to do one year of residential seminary training before being ordained. Upon his return to Oregon from his year at Virginia Seminary, Bernie was ordained deacon and then priest, and became the rector of his home town parish. Since then St. Timothy under Bernie’s leadership has become a true force on the south coast. Years ago they provided access to medical care to those who had no other way to get it by convincing medical professionals to come to the church and volunteer their time. When the Oregon Health Plan went into effect they helped people fill out the required paper work in order to enroll. They have a clothes exchange whereby unhoused individuals can come by, use their shower and then trade the clothes they’ve been wearing for clean ones. Members of the congregation take loads of dirty clothes to the laundromat as needed. And of course they have a feeding program. While that was twice a week prior to Covid, during Covid other churches closed down their feeding programs so St. Timothy expanded theirs to four days a week. Some of their neighbors complained so the city passed an ordinance saying an organization could only serve two meals a week. Bernie said no, that would be impinging on the first amendment right of his parishioners to live out their faith. The city council was unmoved, so the church sued the city. With the support of Bishop Diana and contributions from many of us around the diocese the case wound its way through the courts until a federal judge finally ruled in favor of St. Timothy. The city ended up paying all of St. Timothy’s legal fees. The feeding program has continued. Now Bernie would tell you he’s just a crab fisherman who became a priest. I doubt the members of his congregation regard themselves as saints either, yet collectively they have had an extraordinary impact on the lives of those in need in Curry County.
All of us have ministries that matter. Whether you make quilts for newborns, or sandwiches for the hungry, or music that gladdens the hearts of everyone who hears it, your ministry matters. If your life’s work is healing the sick, teaching the next generation, helping those most vulnerable to the misuse of power to be safe, that is your ministry and it matters. On a given day if your only interaction with another person is to speak a few kind words to the checker at the grocery store, smile at a child who looks lost and alone, or call a friend who has lost a loved one to say Hey, I’m here if you need me, that matters. Collectively all our ministries, every act of kindness is a thread in the tapestry that portrays the goodness of God for all the world to see. As Mother Teresa reminded people throughout her life, some may be called to do great things, but we are all called to do small things with great love. Amen.
Today, on the Feast of the Presentation, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of Epiphany. We are a month in, but still have a month to go because the beginning of Lent is late. We have a full Epiphany season this year.
One way we can think about the seasons of the church year is to think of them as individual units: what is Advent telling us, what is Christmas telling us, what is Epiphany telling us. That is one way to think about the seasons. Another way to think about them is to think of them as larger units, as a series or stories that happen over multiple seasons. If we think of them this way, Advent and Christmas and Epiphany are one unit, a trilogy, or perhaps a trinity, of seasons that are working together for the same thing. These three seasons are all about the Incarnation. In Advent we are preparing for the coming of Christ, at Christmas we are celebrating the birth of Christ, and in Epiphany, people are having their epiphanies. They are realizing that in the person of Jesus, there is something happening. He is more than just a regular person. The thing that they are experiencing is the fullness of God dwelling within this human. So we have Advent, a season of preparation, Christmas, a season of celebration, and Epiphany, a season of realization.
Each week we hear stories of people having their epiphanies, their encounters and their realizations about Jesus. These stories don’t work perfectly chronologically. There are two tracks going on here. We have the kid track and the adult track. We start the season off with the Magi, who meet the baby Jesus. Then the Sunday after that we go to Jesus’s baptism when he is an adult, and the people who have their epiphany when the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and a voice comes out of heaven. Then we have the story of the first miracle at Cana in Galilee and the realization the folks there had. The following story was about Jesus in the Temple where he read the scriptures, and the people realized He was the embodiment of Isaiah’s dream for this world. Jesus said, today this has been fulfilled in your sight. He is the embodiment of the Good News to the poor, and release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind.
This week we jump back to the kid track, and we hear Simeon and Anna and their epiphanies when they meet the baby Jesus. Next week we will go back to the adult track, and in the following weeks hear stories about people having their realization when Jesus calls them, when he heals folks, when people hear him teach or preach. The whole season ends with the most magnificent realizations when Peter, James, and John go to the mountain and have the experience of the Transfiguration.
If we think about these seasons, not as individual units, but a larger grouping of preparation, celebration, and realization, we notice there are other threads going through them. One of the threads throughout all three of these seasons is the thread of light. In Advent we heard readings about light, and we lit more candles week by week. At Christmas we celebrated the Light of Christ into the world, and we heard more readings about light, including the Prologue to John’s Gospel in which John said that the Incarnation of God is the coming of the Light into the world. No matter how dark it gets, John promises us that the darkness cannot overcome this Light.
As we get into Epiphany and the story of the Magi, we have the light of the star. Today we again have light. Simeon, when he encounters Jesus, says, “Lord, you have now set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised. For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see. A light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.” What Simeon experiences is seeing the light. What Anna experiences is seeing the light, the light of Christ that came into the world that John promises us cannot be overcome by any darkness.
Why do we do this every year? Why do we have a church year with its seasons and patterns that we repeat every year? Why do we go through this? We go through this every year in order to form ourselves evermore into the likeness of Christ. We go through this particular trilogy/trinity of seasons in order to help us prepare, celebrate, and realize the presence of the Light in our lives today. We take time in Advent to intentionally prepare. We take time in Christmas to intentionally celebrate. And we take time in Epiphany, intentionally hearing these stories of peoples’ realizations of the Light, to help form us so that we can see it better in our lives. Each year we go back to it, trying to deepen our understanding, our appreciation, our vision to see that Light more clearly.
Here is the thing about the light and the darkness: the darkness might not be able to overcome it, but that darkness is strong, isn’t it? It has been there, it is still there, and it is going to continue to be there. The darkness shows up in all kinds of different ways. In comes in pain and suffering, illness, grief, sorrow over loved ones who died, relationships that fall apart. It comes in jobs lost, and in the powers and principalities of this world that are throwing all kinds of darkness into the world. I know that many of us have all kinds of darkness going on in our lives, from the personal to the communal darkness. I know that many of us see great, big, dark storm clouds coming in. But the reason we do this every year, is so that no matter how dark it gets, we can still see the Light, because the Light is still there, my friends. The darkness cannot overcome it. The Light of Christ is with you. It is shining a Light on the path. The Light of Christ is with you, trying to help you so you will not stumble and fall, so you can keep walking forward in faith and hope towards God, and his dream and vision for this world. The promise that God has made to us, the Light of Christ, is there. It was born, and it has been realized.
So, my friends, I encourage you, during the month left in this Epiphany season, to look for the Light. Look for the Light in the stories of other people. Look for the Light each week in the Gospel readings that we hear. Look for the Light throughout history in the stories of the Saints. There are great stories of their realizations, and the Light of Christ that they saw. You love St. Francis? Go read his story. Go learn how it is that he saw the Light. You love Dr. King? Go read his story. He told us how he went up on the mountaintop and saw the Light of Christ. People throughout generations have seen this Light, and when we read their stories we can also see it. A better place to look for the Light is in your own life, because the Light of Christ is shining there. Look for the Light that has been there throughout your life, and it is still there.
Look for the Light, and then, as Simeon says, the Light is not just for him, it is for the whole world. This Light is not something that we can hoard and keep to ourselves. This Light is something that we are meant to share with others to help them through the darkness, as well.
Seek the Light. See the Light. Share the Light, each and every day.
AMEN
Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
Here we are, the third Sunday after the Epiphany, in this season of the revealing and manifesting of the divine identity of Jesus. You remember the star, the Magi, the Holy Spirit dove, the voice of God at Jesus’ baptism: “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased!” the 180 gallons of water turned into fine wine?
Then, after being tempted in the desert, Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit returned to Galilee, the region where he grew up. He’s been teaching in the synagogues in the area and people are talking about him. Today, he arrives in his childhood home, Nazareth, and its sabbath day so he goes to synagogue and volunteers to read. The attendant hands him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, a long scroll, in our bibles it’s 66 chapters long. He finds a specific section and begins to read. Now up to this point we’ve witnessed signs and miracles proclaiming Jesus’ divinity, showing us that he was more than just a wise man, gifted teacher or prophet, but God incarnate! But what was he here to do? Jesus reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
While this section of scripture from the prophet Isaiah was probably well-known to his listeners, what comes next, Jesus’ mic-drop moment, is what would have utterly shocked and amazed those in the synagogue. After finishing the reading, he rolls the scroll up, hands it to the attendant, and sits down. This was normal practice, stand to read, sit to preach. The eyes of all in the synagogue are fixed on him.
Ok, we’ve heard about our hometown boy, Mary and Joseph’s son, carpenter’s apprentice, let’s see what he’s got.
Jesus gives perhaps the shortest and most powerful sermon ever, one line!
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” BOOM!
Right here and now, this scripture has just been realized. It’s me. THIS, THIS is what I’ve come to do. I’m the one you’ve been hearing about, looking and waiting for for all these years.”
Jesus’ purpose on this earth is laid out, his mission statement is:
To bring good news to the poor. To set people free, to release them from the shackles, real or metaphorical, that bind them. To free them from oppression, from racism, from addiction, from shame, from feelings of worthlessness, and to offer them new life, full, abundant life. Jesus has come to help people see again, to see clearly their value as beloved children of God, to see their neighbors, ALL of their neighbors, as made in God’s image and deserving of honor, dignity, and respect. To help us see through our differences and focus on what we have in common. Jesus has come to proclaim that God’s favor, loving care, and guidance are with us. This was known as a Jubilee year, proclaimed and celebrated every 50 years, a year of celebration, rest, and liberation. A time when debts would be forgiven, slaves would be freed, fields would be allowed to rest and rejuvenate, and people could return to their own land.
Good news. Freedom. Restoration. Forgiveness. Rest, and return. Jesus is here to lift up the lowly and the broken. Jesus has laid out for the people in the synagogue at Nazareth, and us here in this sanctuary today, what he’s all about. And, what we are called to be all about too. Perhaps even more so now, in these times, than ever before, at least in my lifetime.
So, if we really want to follow Jesus, to be Christians in our world today, then this is OUR mission statement too. This is what we are to be about if we seek to follow Jesus. To show with our actions that we care for the least, the last, and the lost, just like Jesus did. This is radical stuff from the radical divine human, Jesus the Christ.
To live like Jesus is to put others first, helping, sharing, making sure we all have enough and that we’re all safe and cared for and loved. It’s all about helping out those in need. Advocating, standing up with those who are being put down and told they are different or other or inferior. It’s about being the Good News of God’s conquering love for EVERYONE, E-V-E-R-Y- ONE!
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we hear: “We are the body of Christ and individually members of it… If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. In his letter from a Birmingham jail The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoes: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Each of us must work and share together in the mission of Jesus: to bring good news to those who need to hear it most, to those who are hurting, scared, lonely, on the margins. To seek and serve Christ in everyone we meet, to work for justice and peace, and to honor the dignity of every human being. To set people free. These promises from our baptismal covenant guide us. Today, Jesus has declared our mission in this world. Let us go forth together, in the power of the Spirit, to bring good news to those who are hurting, afraid, and oppressed. Amen.
Our Epistle today is from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. These letters that Paul wrote to the various communities that he had helped found are not regular check-in letters. They are not “miss you, hope to see you soon” kind of letters. They have a meatier substance to them. We often don’t know the details of why he sent these letters, but we can generally say he sent them to encourage people, teach and inform them, and, most pressingly, to resolve some kind of controversy or conflict within the community. We only have one half of the conversation, so we don’t know what all the conflicts were, or the depth of them, but we can reconstruct it based on what Paul’s response is to the people.
In a letter like First Corinthians, there are a lot of issues he is dealing with. Paul has gotten word that there are lots of challenges he needs to talk with them about. One of the primary issues in which he spends about 20% of the Epistle talking about it, is the issue of spiritual gifts. “Now concerning spiritual gifts,” we heard him say in the Epistle reading. We don’t know exactly what is going on here, but it seems that there is a group of people who think that either they have gifts and others don’t, or their gifts are better than others, and they are not being very nice about it. Paul is addressing this issue. This whole section is going to culminate in that very famous passage that every single person here knows: Now faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is love. You’ve all been to a wedding so you have heard it. But the context of this passage is the issue of spiritual gifts. The culmination of his argument is that love is the answer. You have to live in love. Faith and hope are also gifts, but the most important of all the gifts is love. If you would strive for love and act in love, then there would not be these fights over has better gifts than another person.
Paul is going to lay some foundations before he gets to this culminating statement about love. In today’s reading, he makes three critical foundational arguments. The first is that every gift is from God. So perhaps some people were saying their gift was from God, but someone else’s gift is from another spirit. But Paul says that every gift is from God. Every gift you have is from God, not from some other spirit, and not from yourself. It is, in fact, a gift that has been given to you by God. That is the first thing.
The second thing Paul says is that everyone has a gift. Every single person has a gift. They may be different from other people’s gifts, but every person has one. Part of Paul’s argument is that the gifts are much more varied than we probably think. Our best guess is that the people who have the gift of tongues think they are a little better than everyone else. Paul says that tongues are indeed a gift, but there are many gifts. He named some in the reading today: gifts like wisdom, gifts like discernment, gifts of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Faith, hope and love are gifts, although we don’t often think of them as gifts. But they are gifts from God as well. There are other gifts. I wonder what kind of gifts you might think of in your life. It might be obvious for some, like you are intelligent and have the gift of teaching, or maybe you’re an amazing musician. There are other gifts, like the gift of time, financial resources, the gift of creativity, the gift of boredom. Can that be a gift? I think it could be. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to pull out our phones to stop the boredom. There are lots of gifts.
The third thing that Paul argues, and I think this is the most important one because it will lead us to that message of love. Paul says that every single gift we have has been given to us for the common good. These gifts we have been given are not just for us to enjoy for ourselves. You may take pleasure in the gift, but they are given to us for the other, for the community, for something bigger than ourselves, for something outside of ourselves.
That, I think, is the most challenging message for the people in Corinth, and still the most challenging message for us today. Considering the common good instead of ourselves is really hard, and a lot of folks struggle with this. We are not naturally inclined to think of the bigger picture. We tend to look inward. Paul wants us to shift our mindset and start thinking of something greater than ourselves. Every gift we have been given is for the common good. We are meant to share the gifts that have been shared with us. We are not meant to be dragons sitting on hoards of gold. We are meant to share them for the common good.
My friends, I want to encourage you this week to spend some time thinking about Paul’s argument about gifts. You can even call this homework. I want you to take some time and think about gifts. Think about the gifts you have, name them, list the obvious ones, but try and think about how varied the gifts can be. Most things in your life can probably be seen as a gift. Spend some time intentionally, but also ask yourself at other times, could this be a gift? Could this boring moment I’m living in be a gift to me?
The second thing I want you to think about is how this gift that you have been given can be shared with others. How can you shift your mindset, as Paul wants us to, to start thinking about the other, start thinking about the common good. How can we start, just as Jesus taught us, to love our neighbor with the gifts that we have been given? That is your homework assignment. You don’t have to turn it in, but I want you to spend the time working on it. Think through how God is calling you to use your gifts in this world.
AMEN
Our first reading today comes from the book of Isaiah. In it Isaiah tells the people that they are precious in the sight of the Lord. They are loved by God. But He speaks these words to a people who feel anything but that. For generations, things have not been going their way. The dream of a united kingdom had fallen apart within months of Solomon’s death. There were constants wars back and forth. Oppression and corruption were rampant. The poor got poorer and the rich got richer. The orphan and the widow were neglected. It was a dark and bad time, but the rotten cherry on the top of this sundae was that the Babylonians had come and sent the people into exile. This was not a time when anyone could look around and say, boy, do I feel precious in the sight of the Lord. Instead, this was a time when people wrote psalms that said things like, we sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep; we take our harps and hang them up, because how can we sing in a moment like this? And at this moment when people are feeling this way, Isaiah says you are precious in the sight of the Lord, and you are beloved by God.
What in the heck is he talking about? How is that possible? The people can look around and know that this does not seem to be the case. Isaiah knows it is not a good time. He has spent chapters and chapters talking about all the things that have gone wrong; all the ways the people have not been loving God and loving their neighbor. And yet Isaiah says in spite of all of that, it is still true that you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God.
What is the argument for this? You cannot look around and see it at that moment. His argument, as we heard in the reading, is Creation. Isaiah looks back and says you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God because God made you. Full stop. You are precious and beloved because God created you. The same God who made the world, and at the end of each day looked out over it and said, it is good, it is good. And on some of the days he said it is very good. This God thinks that you are precious and beloved. Creation was made by the overflowing love of God into the world, so you are precious and beloved. The creation story tells us you, made by God, were made in God’s very image. You are precious and beloved. Not because of what is happening in this moment, but because of what has happened and, Isaiah adds, of what will happen. We look back to Creation, but also have to look forward in hope to the redemption. There is love abundant and clear in both of those. Even though you cannot see it in this moment, the love is still there. You are still precious and beloved, even in this moment that you might feel abandoned. It is still true. If you are having trouble seeing it, look past this moment and look back and look forward because God loves you, just as you are.
Our Gospel reading today is the story of Jesus’s baptism. This story is echoing Creation. What happened in the first Creation story in Genesis I? In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless void, it said that the Holy Spirit was moving over the waters of creation. And what happened in the Gospel reading? Jesus goes into the waters, the heavens open up, and down comes the Holy Spirit like a dove. Just as Isaiah said that because of this Creation you can know that you are beloved, we have in the Gospel story a voice from the heavens saying, this is my beloved Child. This baptism is not just a cleansing, it is a new creation. It happens in our baptism, as well. Remember Baptism is a sacrament of unity in which we become one with Christ, part of the Body of Christ. And therefore the words spoken over Jesus, that he is beloved a Son, are the same words spoken over us by God: you are a beloved child. You are precious and beloved. No matter how dark and difficult it gets, remember to look back to Creation and to look forward in hope. Whatever difficulty is in your life and surrounds you, do not forget that you are precious and beloved.
A few weeks ago I came to the office, and on my desk was a poem. It took me a while to figure out where it came from, but it came from Ryan. It is by a theologian named Kate Bowler, and is titled “A Blessing for What is True about You.”
When God thought you up, it was a good day,
a lovely dream realized in God’s imagination,
a celebration from before you were born.
You were made out of God’s overflowing love,
in who you were, and are, and would become.
God saw it all, from way before the beginning, ‘til way past the end.
And saw that it was good.
This one, God said, this one I love.
I delight in the beauty, and the promise,
the wonder and the glory that is this one whom I have made.
And my gaze is ever upon them,
constant, and warm like the sun at golden hour,
gentle as starlight, transforming and continuing,
calling forth all the growing, all the becoming that is to be done.
Remember this truth:
You were made by love, for love, to love.
AMEN
In today’s Gospel story we heard the story of the Magi, or the Three Kings or Three Wisemen. We know very little about these three Magi, and I mean very little. The Church of England commissioned a report about twenty years ago, and it concluded we know so little about them that we don’t even know if there were three of them. We don’t know if they were kings. We don’t know if they were wise. We don’t even know that they were men. We know almost nothing about these folks.
What do we know about them? We know they are a group. There are at least two, but it could be more. There could be twelve or a hundred, but there are at least two. Of those two there is at least one man. It could be a mixed group, but it can’t be an all female group. They bring three types of gifts. They don’t bring three gifts necessarily, but three types of gifts. There could have been five people bringing gold bars, we don’t know. We do know they bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Then there are things that we sort of know, but they also raise many questions. For instance, we know they came from the East. What does that mean? Does it mean east of Bethlehem, or does it mean “the East” of which Bethlehem is part and areas westward are a part? There is much speculation about where they came from: Persia or Babylon or India or China or Vietnam. There is one tradition that says one came from Europe, one came from Africa, and one came from Asia. And it does not mean that they all came together. They could have come from different places. There is a tradition that says they came from all over, from different places and were therefore each a different people.
It says that they followed a star. What does that mean? Stars don’t move like that and descend over buildings. There are many theories about that. Maybe it was a comet. Maybe it was an astrological planet that ended up in a certain constellation in a certain way that signified something. Maybe it was a mystical event. There is a story about the Magi from between the 3rd and 8th century that says the star was the Christ Child. It showed up and disappeared and then showed up again. So the Christ Child was above the manger, and then the Magi went inside and saw the child in the manger. There are many wild, weird, and mystical theories about the Magi.
Then there is the word, Magi. What does it mean? The Greek word means magician, but in the 1st century that is like a slur or slander, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense in this story. No one has ever thought that they are magicians, and have tried to find another explanation. That is why they are also called wisemen or kings, the ones we know best, but also sages, religious leaders, priests. There is a tradition that says they are princes. Someone claimed that there was a tribe of people called the Magi, so these people were Magians. Like Eugenians from Eugene bringing their gifts. I can see them as a whole family, kids and everyone.
There is another tradition that says do not use the Greek word for Magi, but use the word in the native language that the Magi were from. What language is that? Where were they from? We don’t know. There is a theory that they are from a mythical land. There are so many questions, and we know so little about them. And what happens when we don’t know much about something? Our imaginations run wild, and there are some pretty wild imaginations like the explanations we have just heard.
We have an imagination that there are three of them, each one of them has a gift, and they have names: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar. That is one tradition. But there are other traditions. One of then from the far East, the Syriac church, has twelve Magi, and they all have names as well. It is an interesting thing, and all the imagination is fun, but hold it lightly because we don’t know. What we do know is that it is a group with at least one man, and they bring three types of gifts. Everything else is imagination.
The people that have these imaginations are trying to figure out what really was, but are also linking things up to other elements of the Biblical story. The idea that Magi are kings only comes from people’s imagination. There is no evidence that kings are a translation of Magi. But with the use of the word kings they are referencing some Old Testament language of the Prophets and Psalms. They are also trying to highlight Jesus’s kingship with the image of kings bowing down to a king. This imagination is looking to the past in Scripture and looking forward to the Gospels and the Epistles.
It is fun, and I’m trying to avoid spending the entire sermon time telling you wild and crazy ideas that people have had about the Magi. Instead, I want to share one more with you, and it is my favorite. It is a relatively recent imagining, coming from the 19th century, not the 3rd or 8th. It is a story written by Henry Van Dyke and it is called “The Other Wiseman.”
In Henry Van Dyke’s imagination, there are the three, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but there is a fourth. His name is Artaban. They do not live in the same place, but in different areas. They are all friends and have come together in the past. They are astrologers or astronomers who watch the stars, and have been searching Scriptures and looking to the stars to see what they can know about their faith. There is to be a king born of the Jews when a certain star situation happens. They all agree that when this occurs they will meet within 10 days and then go together.
The event happens, and Artaban sells his house and all his possessions and buys three jewels to give as his gift: a ruby, a sapphire, and a pearl of great price. He takes the jewels and rides his horse across the desert. It is pushing it to get there in 10 days, so he is driving his horse rather hard. The horse is getting really tired so they stop at an oasis, and there Artaban finds a man who is dying. Artaban is a wise man and has some medical training, and wants to help this man but also knows if he does so he will miss his friends’ caravan. But he has a strong feeling that he has to help the guy. He nurses him back to health and then continues on his journey, but when he gets there, his friends have already gone. There is a note: sorry, time passed. We are on our way. Catch up.
Artaban’s horse is not going to make it, so he has to buy some supplies and a camel, and sells one of the jewels to do so. Now he has two left. He makes the journey to Bethlehem and learns that his friends have departed. But Herod’s soldiers are there to kill the children. Artaban tries to find the Holy Family, but they have escaped to Egypt. He meets a young mother with her baby and learns that Herod is killing all the babies. As he is preparing to go to Egypt, soldiers arrive at the door to search the house where the mother and baby are. That same feeling he had when he discovered the sick man at the oasis hits him, and he bribes the soldier with one of his remaining jewels not to search the house. The soldiers move on and that baby survives.
Artaban goes to Egypt and searches for the Holy Family. He searches for years and years, but cannot find them. He comes upon a Rabbi who says the Messiah will come from among the poor, and advises Artaban to go where the poor live. He goes to ghettos, poor houses, soup kitchens, not just in Egypt but all over the region. For thirty three years he searches for the newborn King.
Artaban ends up in Jerusalem where everyone is talking about a man they call King of the Jews who is being crucified. He thinks that perhaps this man is the one he has been looking for. He has one jewel remaining, and maybe he can us it to save this King of the Jews. Artaban goes through the Damascus Gate, but stops when he sees a young woman who is being sold into slavery. That same feeling hits him inside, and even though he wants to go meet Jesus and perhaps save his life, he uses the jewel to buy the young woman’s freedom.
Then everything goes dark. There is an earthquake, some stones fall from the Temple, and one hits him on the head, knocking him out. He is dying, and the young woman hears him whisper: when did I ever see you hungry? when did I ever see you thirsty? When did I ever see you a stranger? Those words are from Matthew 25. Then the young woman heard another voice, quieter than the whispers of Artaban, saying that whenever you do it to the least of these, you do it to me. With that, Artaban realized he had given his gifts to Jesus.
My friends, be another one of the Magi and seek the Christ Child. He told you where he would be. He said, this is my Body, this is my Blood. He said, I am in all those who hunger and thirst. I am in all those in prison, I am in all those who are naked, I am in all those who are strangers. He also said I am in every child. What point in our life have we not been a child or been a stranger or been injured? Christ is in every person. Christ is in your neighbor. Seek the Christ in them, and offer them your gifts, whatever they may be, and be one of the Magi.
AMEN.
Merry Christmas! Today is the 5th Day of Christmas, and I hope your true love gave you five gold rings this morning. It is still Christmas. Christmas is twelve glorious days that began on December 25 and will end on January 5th. On January 6 we will celebrate The Feast of the Epiphany, and then move forward. This is a time to celebrate. It is a time to feast, and I encourage you to do that during these days. Celebrate and feast as much as you are able. Be like Jesus, who liked to party a lot. We know this because the biggest criticism of Jesus was that he partied too much. The celebration of Christmas was once banned in England when the Puritans took over in the 17th century. Don’t be a Puritan. You’re an Anglican. Celebrate! Keep partying every day, but here’s the thing: in all of your celebrations, make sure you don’t lose sight of the thing you are celebrating.
The thing that we are celebrating is the birth of Jesus, the birth of Christ. This past week on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we heard Luke tell us the story of how all that took place. It took place during the time of Quirinius, there was a census, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, no room at the inn so they went to the stable with the animals, Jesus was born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger, which was a trough from which the animals ate, the angels came to the shepherds in the field and sang our “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to the people on earth”, the angels told the shepherds all that had taken place, one of them said “let us go see this thing that has taken place”, they go to Bethlehem, they meet Jesus and Mary and Joseph, they tell them all the wonderful things the angels had said and done, and Mary treasured them in her heart. It is a beautiful story.
Today we get John’s take on the nativity, which is not quite the same beautiful story. Instead, John gives us a poem, and this poem is not about the details of how this all took place. John is focused on the meaning behind it, why it all matters. John uses a poetic introduction to his Gospel that talks about the Incarnation, the Word Incarnate, and the Word is God. Literally, the Greek says that God pitched a tent among humanity to live here with us, to be one of us. The all powerful God gave up all the privileges of that power to take on the limitations of humanity. The limitations and also the joys, remember Jesus partied too much, and also all the sufferings, even to death on the cross. This is what Christmas is all about: the Incarnation, God coming to live a human life.
Why? Why did God do this? John has two main answers that he often comes back to throughout the Gospels and the Epistles. The first reason is light. God wanted to shine a light in the midst of the darkness that we experience. And there is a lot of darkness in this world from the global level down to the personal level, and everything in between. God wanted to make sure that in the midst of all this darkness there would be a light. Perhaps the light can shine the path for you, perhaps the light will bring you hope. What does John say about the light? He says that the darkness will not and cannot overcome it. Whether you are facing darkness right now or will be facing it in the future, and it is inevitable that we all will, remember that light. Remember the light of Christ is more powerful than whatever darkness it is that you face. God is shining a light, and that is what the Incarnation is about for John. That is what he says in the Gospel reading: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light.” Remember that light in all things.
That is the first theme for John. The second theme is love. “Of the Father’s love begotten”, as we will sing a bit later. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so all that trust in Him will have eternal life.” It is all about love, even unto the cross. What does Jesus say the night before he died? John tells us: there is no greater love than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. The Crucifixion is all about love, the Incarnation is all about love, and it is the foundation of everything in between, as well. What did Jesus teach? Love the Lord your God with all you heart and mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the laws and the prophets. He taught about love, he acted in love with all kinds of folks, many of whom did not want to party with him. Jesus loved every time he healed somebody. It is all about love, in Jesus’s words and in his deeds. It all begins with the Incarnation. Love is what came down at Christmas, as we will sing in a hymn a little bit later, because God is love, as John goes on to say in the First Epistle of John. God is love, so if he is going to be Incarnate, it will be the Incarnation of love in this world.
So, my friends, celebrate, feast, party. But in the midst of all of it, do not forget about the Incarnation. Do not forget about this light and this love that God is offering you in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of that light and that love in this world.
AMEN.
Let us pray: God who comes to us as we are, as we approach the birth of Jesus, may we come closer to one another, and find ourselves closer to you. In the name of the Creator, the divine Human, and the connecting Spirit. Amen.
What a great story we have in today’s gospel on the last Sunday of Advent. We are close, SO close to Christmas, but we’re not quite there yet, just a bit more time, just a bit more waiting. Time for us to hear and wonder about two pregnant women, a young woman, Mary, and a much older woman, Elizabeth. Yes, today’s sermon is all about two pregnant, singing women.
After hearing the unbelievable news that would change her life forever, this young, peasant girl sets out on a journey of about 80 miles, you know, just three marathons and some change (!) to go see her cousin Elizabeth who she heard is six-months pregnant. And then, when she arrives, it all gets crazy! Mary’s call of “Cousin, I’m here!”, causes the in-utero John the Baptist to start doing cartwheels and goal kicks. And then the Holy Spirit fills her and she blurts out these famous words, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” The Holy Spirit speaks through Elizabeth confirming the truth spoken to Mary. Elizabeth sees it and knows it, and John in her belly gives a kick of witness too! The young Mary is blessed among all women and the baby growing in her womb is blessed as well.
Marveling at the awesomeness of it all, Elizabeth wonders out loud, “Why me? Here you are, the Mother of my Lord, at MY house, visiting ME! The Spirit proclaims the blessedness of Mary, the one who dared trust God’s plan and Elizabeth explains how in-the-womb John the Baptist had somersaulted at the sound of Mary’s voice. Can you even begin to imagine this scene? This joy, awe, and wonder taking place as these two pregnant women meet at the house in the hills of Judea? The smiles, the tears, the headshaking, the awkward baby-bump hugging and belly comparing?
After Elizabeth’s Holy Spirit inspired song, it’s Mary turn.
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed: for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Mary rejoices and gives thanks to God as she begins to realize the amazing plan that God has chosen her to be a part of. Just as Elizabeth wonders why the mother of her Lord has come to her, Mary wonders why God has chosen HER, lifted HER up. She knows that from this day forward when people hear her story, they’ll marvel at how God has blessed her. Mary’s next verse is all about the nature of God. Not the typical God of power that many (including us?) are looking for or used to. This God whose praises Mary sings is characterized by mercy. The proud have been scattered and those sitting in thrones of power and judgment have been ejector seated. The lowly have been lifted and the hungry have been filled, while the rich and the usual feasting parties have been sent away without the smallest to-go container! The God that Mary sings of is the God who remembers the promise made to all those who came before, a promise of mercy, to them and us and to all those who’ll come after us. A promise to be with them, to accompany them and champion them, to love them and lift them up.
Mary’s song is a radical vision of the new order present in the wombs of these two women, to be announced by John and then enacted by Jesus. God is coming to be here with us, Immanuel. Not some distant, far-off, all-powerful enforcer to crush us into submission. No. The Prince of Peace comes with mercy seeking to be with us and know us, and to be in relationship with us in ALL of our humanity.
Today’s story about this incredible meeting between these two women is a beautiful reminder of how God comes to US. This whole season of preparation for the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and all of the great celebration that occurs during Christmastide, are all about God the Universe Creator, choosing, CHOOSING, to come and meet us EXACTLY as we are. In EVERY aspect of our humanity. And thereby deigning it, deigning us, GOOD, and WORTHY, and proclaiming God’s desire to know us as closely as we’ll allow. This Ultimate Power of Creative Love is seeking to be with us as we navigate our lives as humans. As these two women come together through the bonds of their miraculous, unplanned pregnancies and all that they’ll mean for their bodies and their places in society, God is present in it all. By choice!
Together, with Christ, in our common human state, we too can sing, and cry. Together, with Christ, we too can find support, and stand in awe and give thanks to God. We, like Elizabeth and Mary become Holy- Spirit-filled prophets proclaiming God’s goodness and standing amazed and honored to receive the presence of God within and around us, in ourselves and others, and in God’s glorious creation.
Amen.
This week and last week we have been hearing about John the Baptist. Last week we heard that John was a Prophet. We heard it first in the Canticle, the Song of Zechariah, that was in place of the Psalm. That was the song that John ‘s father sang right after John had been named at the Temple. People asked what was going on with him, as there seemed to be something special about him, and Zechariah sang, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. He goes on in the Canticle to say,
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
We learned in the Gospel last week that is exactly what John did. He embodied those words that his father spoke concerning him. Who knows how many times John heard that song growing up. Perhaps it was the lullaby that Zechariah sang as John was put to bed every night. John embodied those words and became the Prophet. Luke told us last week this prophetic ministry is grounded in the ancient Prophets of old, specifically Isaiah. John was the one to prepare the way of the Lord, to bring the mountain down and the valley up.
If John is a Prophet, it raises the question, what is a prophet, and what is prophecy? It is an important question because I think a lot of people get this wrong. Some think a prophet is something close to a fortune teller, and prophecy is predicting the future. The prophets’ words are puzzles that we are to put together to figure out what it is that is going to happen. This, decidedly, is not what a prophet is.
A Prophet is someone whose life is so aligned with God’s dream and God’s vision, that they cannot do anything except live their life and speak words that align with this vision. A Prophet is somebody with a very large imagination to help put into words the dream that God has for this world. A dream that is grounded in our faith. A dream that is grounded in creation. A dream that says that every single person is made in the image of God, so every single person deserves dignity and respect. That is what the prophetic ministry is all about, grounded in the rule of love, to love God and love your neighbor. A Prophet will sometimes talk about the future, but it is not about predictions. It is the imagination of God put in new and interesting ways. For instance, Isaiah talks about the lion and the lamb lying down together, a vision of vegetarian lions. A pretty big imagination is needed to envision vegetarian lions. But that is God’s dream, a time when there is no longer predator and prey, but they can be friends and fall asleep in each other’s company. This is the kind of stuff that the Prophets do, sharing images of what God desires in this world.
Prophets also have to so some truth telling, because this world is not aligned with God’s dream, especially those folks with power. God’s dream challenges them in ways they don’t want to be challenged. So the Prophets have to do some truth telling because they are so aligned with God’s dream they can’t but speak and live a life aligned with that dream.
We hear more about that dream in the first reading from Zephaniah today. The dream God has is a world without fear, a world in which we are renewed in love, a world in which the lame are saved and the outcasts are gathered, a world in which shame gets transformed into praise. This is the beautiful vision that the Prophets proclaim, the beautiful dream that God has for a world that is aligned with God. It is a beautiful dream, and the people come out to hear John share it.
But there is a problem with this dream. It is rather audacious. It seems unrealistic, it is impossible, and even if it is possible, what can I do as one little person in the midst of it. I can’t bring a mountain down or bring a valley up. So in today’s Gospel, John is addressing the more concrete questions. What specifically am I to do? John says here is one thing you can do: if you have two coats, you probably don’t need them both, and you certainly don’t need two coats if someone else has none. So why not share that coat with someone else? If you have extra food, more than you need, perhaps you should share that with someone who doesn’t have enough. John is not saying that you are going to solve the problem of unhousedness or of people being cold in this world, you are not going to solve the problem of hunger all by yourself. What you are doing is taking one pebble off the mountain and throwing it into the valley. That is what you can do where you are.
Some tax collectors come to John and ask what they should do. I don’t know what you think about the IRS or your current tax bill, but that is not what we are talking about. First century tax collectors were fellow Jews who were collaborating with the enemy, the occupying Roman force, helping abuse their fellow Jews. They were traitors. When the tax collectors ask what they can do, John doesn’t say stop collaborating, but he says, don’t make it worse. A tax bill might shows that eight shekels are owed, but the tax collector would say that it was ten, and pocket the extra two as a Christmas bonus. The system is already abusing the people, and then on top of it the tax collectors are abusing it more. John says, don’t do the extra abuse. Don’t go find a pebble down in the valley and throw it back up on the mountain.
What about soldiers? John knows they have to keep their jobs and feed the kids, even as they are helping the occupying force, but he tells them to stop using the power they have been given to hurt people. Don’t exhort money from people. Don’t threaten people with your power. Do your job, but don’t make it any worse. Stop taking pebbles and throwing them back on the mountain.
We are not going to individually make God’s dream come about, but what we are doing when we do this is, like John, aligning our lives with God’s dream. That is the task for each and every one of us, to try and align our lives evermore with God’s dream. You don’t need to become a vegetarian lion, but start doing things to make the world a little bit safer in whatever spheres you live in. Try to make the world a little kinder in whatever spheres you live in. Try to make the world a little more loving in whatever spheres you live in. Take the pebbles on the mountains and toss them off, and when you are down in the valley, keep the pebbles there. Don’t try and throw them back up.
It will look different for each one of us. But what John is challenging each one of us to do is look closely at our lives, and see how it is we can be more a part of God’s dream for this world. It is a decision we have to make each and every day, probably multiple times every day. It is a decision to do the right thing. It is a decision to take those pebbles and put them in the valley to help level things out.
AMEN.
What brings you joy? Is there a hobby you like to do, maybe baking or cooking or eating? Perhaps watching movies or TV shows, listening to music or making music? What brings you joy? Time with family and friends? Getting presents? Giving presents? Decorating the house for the holidays? What brings you joy?
For many of us, joy is important. We like it, of course, but joy is seen as a bonus. It is dessert after dinner. It is secondary to the weightier matters of life that are pressing down upon us. Joy is a welcome distraction from the challenges we face in life, and sometimes we feel guilty for indulging in joy when there are more important things for us to deal with.
But Scripture, as we hear today, has a different understanding of joy. We hear Paul talk of joy in the Epistle we just heard. He talks about offering gratitude to God in his prayers every day with joy. This comes at a time when Paul has been imprisoned, he has a lot of weighty matters pressing down on him, and yet he makes time every day to engage in a practice of joy.
In the reading we heard from Baruch, it talks about God leading with joy. What does it look like to lead with joy? What would it look like if the political leaders of this world lead with joy? I think we might have a slightly different world if they did that.
God has a different understanding of joy than as a secondary bonus or a distraction. For God, joy is central. Joy is what God made us to do. God takes great pleasure when we are enjoying this great creation that God made. God made us out of joy for joy. God leads with joy. Joy is not a distraction from the weightier matters of our lives, joy is the weighty matter of life. How do we find joy, and how do we help others find joy in this life? Joy is central to who we are and what God wants for us.
In the Gospel reading today we hear of John the Baptist. Luke says John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. In the Gospel there is a quote from Isaiah that says John will be the one to prepare the way. We also heard of John in the Canticle, The Song of Zechariah. Zechariah is John the Baptist’s dad, and after John was born, Zechariah sang this song. He said, you, my child, meaning John, will be called the Prophet of the Most High for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way.
I think John is a person who concerned himself with the weightier matters, and perhaps he doesn’t always come across as the most joyful of prophets or saints. But I do think that Scripture is leading us to prepare for joy, and to prepare in joy. I don’t think of joy when I think of John, and yet it does say that the whole point of John’s preparation is to shine light and to bring peace. Doesn’t joy shine light and bring peace?
During this Season of Advent, we are called upon to prepare for the way of the Lord like John the Baptist. Prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Christ at Christmas, and prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Christ in our lives each and every day. These readings are reminding us that we can do that with joy. It is not just a secondary auxiliary matter, but the central one.
So, my friends, during this Advent season I encourage you to prepare in and with and for joy. Take some time this week to think about what it is that brings you joy, and how it is that you bring joy to others. In this world that is so desperately in need of light and love, what would it look like if we started leading with joy with all those with whom we meet, and we brought joy to them? Take this time to focus on joy, not as something as a bonus that you get after all the chores are done, but as central to the question itself.
AMEN.
Happy Advent! Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday in the new church year. The word advent means coming. During the season of Advent we prepare for the coming of The One. Who is The One? Is it Santa Claus? No. That’s a different kind of advent. Santa Claus is coming to town, but that is not the advent we are talking about. The One we are preparing for is Jesus, the Christ.
There are actually three advents that we prepare for during this season of Advent. The first Advent is the one where we put most of our energy, the Advent of Christ coming over two thousand years ago, born as a baby and placed in a manger in Bethlehem. This is, of course, the celebration of Christmas. It is important to do that preparation. It is meet and right to do that work. But it is going to get a lot of our energy, so we are not going to talk about this advent right now.
The second Advent is the Second Coming, the advent of Christ coming at the end of time, the eschatological Advent. It is the time when Christ will come again, and it is the main theme of today. We see it in our Collect, where it says “in the last day”, and we see it in our readings in Jeremiah that says “The days are surely coming”, and the Thessalonian reading that says “the coming of our Lord Jesus”, and Jesus saying “the Son of Man coming in a cloud.” This is all code language for the Second Coming, the Second Advent, the Apocalyptic Advent. It is not a major theme in Scripture, although some Christians like to sound like it is. But it is there. We are preparing for that end in this season of Advent, although it is a hard thing to wrap our minds around. It is important to spend some time during Advent preparing for that end, a “Lo, he comes with clouds descending” kind of moment. Jesus does talk about it. We heard it in today’s Gospel, and we heard it two weeks ago when he was talking about it as well.
The third Advent we prepare for is Christ coming into our lives today. The first Advent looks to the past, the second looks to the future, and the third Advent looks to this moment, this present moment that we find ourselves in. Christ is not just born in a manger two thousand years ago, Christ is born into our heart each and every day. That is an important Advent for us to spend some time focusing on during this season.
Today’s readings are pointing us to the second Advent, but I think this Gospel reading is a bit of a tricky one. I actually think Jesus is pointing us to the third Advent in this Gospel reading. There is a line that strikes me every time I hear this Gospel reading in which Jesus says all of this will take place before this generation has passed. Which means if we are going to take Scripture seriously, if we are going to take Jesus seriously, all of this stuff he is talking about—Christ coming back to the people—took place before they died. So if that is the case perhaps it is not just the end time Advent that Jesus is talking about. Maybe he is talking about the advent of Jesus coming to us now, to that generation, and to every generation.
Notice in the reading that Jesus also talks about all kinds of darkness, typical in apocalyptic literature: the earth in distress among the nations, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and all kinds of terrible things that happen. I think what Jesus is telling us in this Gospel is that in the darkness of our lives, all the problems that we face, which are legion, Christ comes to us in the midst of it. Christ is that light that shines in the darkness. I know we have a lot of darkness in our lives right now. Personally, many of us are facing all kinds of difficulties: cancers, heart problems, dementia and other medical ailments. People with fraying relationships, people having difficulty at work or struggling in their jobs. We have all kinds of personal challenges. There are also all kinds of challenges as a nation, division and crisis. We have challenges around the world. Wars are raging in so many places. There are wars and rumors of wars, as Jesus puts it. There is so much darkness, and yet that is the very moment that Christ is coming into our lives to shine the light. I know it is a bit cliché, but there is an old expression that says the stars are always brightest when it is the darkest. Christ is always brightest when it is darkest. Christ comes to us in the darkness. Or maybe to put it another way, Christ is always there, but we notice him when it is darkest.
I encourage you during this Advent season to take some time to prepare for all of these Advents. The Advent of Christ who came, Christ who will come, and the Christ who is coming among us now.
When you walked in today you might have noticed a few different things around here. There is a little village set up in the back of the Chapel. Did you notice that Jesus is there? He is there in the village among the people living their lives. That is an image of Christ coming. In the narthex there is a new case full of nativity scenes from around the world. One thing you will notice in all of them is that none of them look like what Jesus actually looked like. Perhaps it is a little too Italian, or a little too Medieval. There are nativity scenes from South America, from Africa, from Asia and Europe, and Jesus did not look like any of that. I have to say that this used to bother me. I wanted to find the perfect 1st century nativity scene, but I think I was missing the point when I was bothered by that. The nativity scenes from around the world, with all kinds of cultural expressions of what Jesus looked like, is the third Advent. We don’t see the first one, we see the third one. Yes, Jesus came at a particular time and place to particular people, but Jesus also came and is coming and is here with us now at this time, in this place, with this people.
So, my friends, focus on the presence of Christ in your life. Prepare for Christmas, wrap your presents, get your houses ready. I know it is hard, but also spend a little time thinking about the future. Prepare your heart as much as you prepare your hearth to welcome Jesus into your life today.
AMEN.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman Procurator of Palestine during the reign of Tiberius. Though he commanded a Roman legion of 4500 soldiers, his was not a plush assignment. Saddled with governing one of the frontier provinces of the Roman Empire he spent most of his time in Caesarea Maritime where the weather was reasonably decent and where he was able to have minimal contact with the stubbornly unruly inhabitants of the region under his control. Only on high holy days did Pilate trouble himself to go into Jerusalem so as to be present should any sort of problem arise. Still, he was the face of the Roman Empire in that part of the world, and as such, he literally had the power of life or death over the people under his control. Yet, for all the trappings that went with his position, it is quite possible that Pontius Pilate would have lived and died utterly forgotten by history had it not been for one fateful day when he crossed paths with a Galilean Jew named Jesus of Nazareth.
Of the two men who came face to face that day, Pilate gave the appearance of being the more powerful, and indeed, given his position, he did wield great power. However, there’s a difference between wielding power and being powerful. Pilate was a man used to being treated as if he were powerful, so therefore in his own mind, he was. He was used to the people who came before him groveling, begging for mercy. Condemning people to death or setting them free didn’t require any inner or physical strength on his part. If anyone caused trouble, attempted to escape or to fight back, he had soldiers at hand to enforce whatever he decreed. But then this Galilean Jew showed up who didn’t behave at all like the others had. He didn’t beg for mercy, he didn’t try to flee. Indeed, quite the opposite, he seemed unnaturally calm. It had to have been confusing if not downright unnerving for Pilate to have this seemingly powerless peasant stand before him appearing to be not at all afraid of what Pilate might do to him. He didn’t even answer directly when Pilate asked if he was a king, but instead informed Pilate that he came into the world to testify to the truth, and then added for good measure, everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Pilate reacted to that rather perplexing response by asking Jesus, What is truth?
Now we don’t know what Pilate’s tone was at that point. Possibly quite frustrated by this upstart peasant passively challenging his power, Pilate may well have been responding rather sarcastically when he asked, What is truth? Or, for just an instant, maybe the part of Pilate that deep down suspected that Jesus was innocent, and therefore knew he really should let this nondescript peasant go, came close enough to the surface to wonder, almost fearfully, what is the truth and how many people know it? Do others suspect as I do, that this man is innocent? Will I be judged forever by how I handle this? Pilate could have let Jesus go, and then used his soldiers as needed to quell any sort of protest that action might have produced. Instead, he took the easy way out. In the name of doing his job of keeping the peace, he went along with what the Jewish authorities wanted and condemned Jesus to death. It’s possible that Pilate knew what was real, what the truth was in that situation, but he chose to pretend that he didn’t.
What is truth? I’m not sure there’s a more relevant question in the world today. The dictionary, yes, I do still own one, says that truth is the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality. There was a time when scientists determined what was real, what was true in a given situation with regard to the natural world based on what they could prove with experiments that they evaluated with their senses. With time and the development of ever more sophisticated equipment scientists have learned to interpret all manner of indirect evidence for explaining our world and what happens in it. Beyond this physical reality which I focused on throughout my teaching career, you’ve heard me speak of experiential reality; what we know is real not because we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell it, but because we’ve experienced it, we’ve lived it. Sadly, though, none of this seems to be good enough anymore.
First of all, more than in the past it seems to me, perceptions can be mistaken. The increasing prevalence of artificial Intelligence for example, can leave us wondering if what we thought we experienced actually happened. For that reason a line I read in a book decades ago seems particularly relevant today: Just because you experienced it, doesn't mean it happened that way. The author’s point was that one of the values of community is that those around us offer us the opportunity to check our perceptions, our memories, of a given event or interaction. Of course, for our community to be valuable to us in this way, we have to be willing to share our feelings, our perceptions about whatever it was that we experienced. Sadly though, even if we do withhold judgment in a given situation until we’ve talked with someone we trust to see if what we’re thinking or feeling is accurate, that only pertains to our personal experiences. How in the world do we know these days what is true, what is real in the world beyond the boundaries of our day to day activities?
The internet is rife with misinformation and disinformation. Social media sites have been programmed to lead the viewer to more and more sites that say exactly what the viewer wants to hear, leading people deeper and deeper into a world completely removed from reality. Sadly though, I’ve read in what I hope was a reliable source, that 55% of the US population relies solely on social media for their information. Even those of us who turn to more traditional news sources are left wondering how trusting we can be these days of the information we’re receiving. Gone are the days when Walter Cronkite broadcast the news and we all knew, we absolutely knew, that he was telling us the truth, because in those days both broadcast and print journalists dedicated their lives to conveying to their readers and listeners exactly what had occurred in a given situation. Nowadays it seems as though even the most traditional news sources are at least as concerned, if not more so, about maintaining their viewership as they are about what they report and how they report it. As a result I’m not sure there's a news anchor today, on any network, any news broadcast, who has earned the sort of respect some of us remember according Cronkite. So where does that leave us? It leaves us right here, in church, listening to the Gospel. Jesus answered Pilate’s question, So you are a king? by responding, You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. But when Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth? Jesus simply stood there.
We can only wonder if any part of Pilate knew as he spoke with Jesus that day that he was staring into the face of God. Odds are as a Roman procurator who had been taught that the emperor himself was a god, he probably did not. While there’s no way we can know one way or another about that, what we do know is that just as so many of us would have done, in the heat of the moment Pilate did what was expedient. We can only speculate if later, alone with his thoughts, or perhaps with his wife who had advised him earlier to have nothing to do with that innocent man for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him, Pilate came face to face with the answer to his question.
We live lives today besieged by a cacophony of sound bites. Whether they are literal thirty second snippets taken perhaps out of context to sway our opinion one way or another, or the visual headlines that show up on our watches and phones, unbidden but there nonetheless, they just never stop. We can however, choose to put our phones, watches, and all the other electronic devices that at once serve us and haunt us aside from time to time, in order to spend time as Pilate once had the chance to do, alone with Jesus. Rather than looking outside ourselves we can choose to pursue our search for truth by taking time to turn inward, imagining ourselves looking into the human face of God while listening in the silence for the answers to our questions. In the words of Paul Simon:
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, “The words of the prophets are
written on the subway walls
In tenement halls”
And whispered in the sound of silence.
Let us pray: Good and loving God, send your Spirit to work through these words that they may bring us peace, comfort, and hope. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen.
From psalm 16, verse one: Protect me O God, I take refuge in you. You are my Lord, my God above all other.
Yes, protect us God, today and tomorrow and into our unknown future. If we say that you are our Creator, and not just the creator of humankind, but of ALL creation, then truly you are in charge of our lives as the good above all other. And if we can turn or return, again and again, our focus on God, then the psalmist reminds us that our hearts WILL be glad. Our spirits WILL rejoice and our bodies SHALL rest in hope. Yes please. That’s what I’m looking for today and always.
Today’s psalm reminds us that God WILL show us the path that brings life. It is in the presence of God that we find fullness of joy. What sweet words from the psalmist. Just like last Sunday when Bingham reminded us to put our trust NOT in human leaders who are fallible and who fade away, but rather, to put our trust in the everlasting and perfect love of God, today’s psalm reminds us of the refuge, the sanctuary, the almighty goodness, and reason for joy, gladness and rest that we need. Where can we get that? Where do we find it? How?
It can be found in God alone.
How can we move forward through the worries, fear, and despair of our human lives? With God. God will show us the way, the path of life. God will be present. In that companionship, that support, love, and guidance, we will find our path, our purpose, and our renewed joy.
I’ve been really feeling the need to unplug from my usual news scrolling in the morning over breakfast lately. Instead, I recognize the need to start my day in the scriptures. I read the psalm or psalms for the day, a reading from the Hebrew scriptures, something from one of the epistles, and then the Gospel. What a difference it’s been making! What a much more serene start to my day. God caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, living, active, and good for learning and understanding who God is, how God interacted with humans in the past, how Jesus modeled God’s loving care in words and actions, and how the first followers of Jesus sought to follow in his footsteps.
Today’s collect reminds us to listen, read, mark and inwardly digest scripture. This is for our good, for our reassurance, for mental and spiritual health. We need to inwardly digest it, to really chew it over. It is, after all, divine nourishment that fuels and build us up. Especially in tough times, scriptures offer us hope. Hope that we will make it through, hope that God knows our sufferings and is with us through them, hope that love wins, hope that God’s dream IS becoming reality,
and WILL, in the end, be fully realized. Spending time in the bible reminds us who we are, and whose we are. It reminds us what’s really important in our lives, where we can put our trust and confidence. And it encourages us to be God’s hands and feet, serving up and multiplying divine love in our world.
In today’s second reading. We are reminded of the covenant, the agreement that God made with us:
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds…I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.
God has imprinted the divine law of love on our hearts and in our minds. We have within us the ways that we are called to act and be in this world. And not only that, but God has put away our sins, those times we fell short, failing to love ourselves and others. They---Are---Gone! Such good news, reminders of God’s presence, grace, and forgiveness. And from that, encouragement: Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one what has promised is faithful. Yes! Our good and loving God is faithful. Of that we can be sure. On that we can place all of our trust and confidence, on the God who created us and our world out of love, for love, to be in love with ourselves, each other, and creation. And so, what are we to do now? How are we to act, to move forward? The Letter to the Hebrews give us our answer.
Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. Love and good deeds. Together, as a community, let us move forward with love and in love, encouraging one another, and showing our world what Jesus is all about and what we mean to be all about too.
Amen.
Our psalm today, Psalm 146, is the first of a set of five psalms that finish out the psalter that we might call the Hallelujah Songs of Praise psalms. Why not just call them Songs of Praise without adding the word Hallelujah? It is because this set of psalms is unique in that each one begins and ends with the word Hallelujah. Otherwise, they are similar to other songs praise. They are cheery, they are upbeat, they offer praise to God for all the good things that God has done in this world. Our Psalm today starts the same way, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. It is a beautiful introduction, a classic introduction to a psalm of praise.
But then the psalmist does something a little different than usual. In the next verse the psalmist takes a darker turn and issues a warning: put not your trust in rulers nor in any child of earth for there is no help in them. When they breathe their last they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish. Put not your trust in rulers, some translations say put not your trust in princes. Put not your trust in political leaders or leaders of any kind for they are fallible humans who will disappoint you at some point.
The psalmist is probably writing sometime during the exile, although it may be right after or right before or right in the middle, but either way the psalmist knows their history. The psalmist knows that for hundreds of years their rulers have failed them. The prophets tell us why: they stopped loving God and stopped loving their neighbor. They stopped loving God and stopped honoring the image of God in their neighbor. That was manifested in many ways: the worship of idols, the oppression of the widow and the orphan, injustices, greed, corruption. They were all fallible humans who failed the people. That doesn’t mean all the rulers were bad. There were some that were better than others, some who came along and realized things were not on the right path and tried to turn back and get the people to turn to God, but they also let the people down. They were fallible humans. Ultimately they didn’t go far enough, or they died and their project of reformation died with them. Put not your trust in rulers.
In contrast, the psalmist wants us to put our trust in God, the God who made the heavens and the earth. While the rulers will all go down to the dust, this is the God who made the dust. That is more stable ground in which to put our trust. For while the rulers will let us down, we have a God who will not give in to injustice, and will love you and care for you and support you through it all.
The psalmist knows from the prophets why the other rulers have failed them, so the psalmist chose a contrast with the God who is the exact opposite. Those rulers failed because they were not able to move the people toward God’s dream for this world, so the psalmist reminds us of that dream. We have a God who gives justice to those who are oppressed and food to those who hunger. The Lord who sets the prisoners free and opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord who lifts up those who are down, the Lord loves the righteous and cares for the stranger, which can be translated as sojourner or resident alien. The Lord sustains the orphan and the widow but frustrates the way of the wicked. We are to put our trust in this God with a dream for a world in which each person is made in God’s image and is given the full dignity and respect they deserve as the image bearer of God.
The psalmist wrote these words twenty-five hundred years ago, give or take a couple of hundred years, but it is wisdom that resonates throughout the ages, wisdom that each generation discovers time and again, wisdom that resonates today and will continue to resonate in the future. Leaders will fail us. They are not where we are to put our hope or trust. Instead, the psalmist says put your trust in the Lord.
I encourage you to try and do that. I encourage you to read, mark and inwardly digest this psalm, to write it on your heart. No matter what the world throws at you with all of its fear and darkness and its fallibility, remember the words of this psalm and put your trust in the God who is eternal and loving and caring. Keep walking forward in faith with this God who is worthy of our trust.
This is wisdom to carry us forward, but it can also be a bit dangerous to do this. Sometimes we can say we trust in God, God has it all taken care of so I don’t need to do anything. That, my friends, is not what the psalmist is trying to tell us. That is apathy and it is not what God wants for us.
The Gospel lesson we just heard is a beautiful example of continuing to do good even when it seems insignificant. Jesus is at the temple with the Disciples and observes people putting their money into the offering box. He sees folks who come forward and put a whole pocketful of coins in, maybe a few checks that are big enough to make a transformative difference, maybe even big enough to get a building named after them. Then Jesus sees a woman, a widow, who puts in two coins, the kind of gift the world would think is insignificant, the kind of gift the accountant would consider a rounding error. And Jesus says, let me tell you something. Of these huge gifts that the world thinks are really important and the really tiny gift that the world thinks is meaningless, the small one is the one that is most important. Some people are giving the spare change out of their pocket and it is almost an afterthought. But the woman is giving her everything. While the world will say that doesn’t matter, God says that is the thing that matters most. Each and every single one of us, doing what we can, in the place in which we have been put, with the gifts that God has given us, no matter how insignificant it might seem, is how we should live our lives. And this is beyond the subject of just money.
When everything around us seems so overwhelming and we cannot do anything to change it, when it seems that there is fear and hatred spilling out everywhere, and powers and principalities are winning the day, Jesus says keep trying. Keep giving. Keep serving. Keep loving. Keep caring. Keep working toward the dream that God has for a world in which injustices end, where every single person is nourished, people are liberated, the eyes of the blind are opened, and those who are bowed down can stand up straight, in which the stranger, the resident alien, are cared for and treated as one of our own, in which the orphan and widow are sustained. Keep working towards that dream that God has. The tiny little bit that you can do in your place, in your school, in your work, in your home, in your community, even if it feels insignificant, it is not. It matters. It matters to God.
So, my friends, remember these words of the psalmist. Put your trust in the Lord. So many things are asking for your trust, but put your trust in the Lord because the rest of them are fallible and transient. Put your trust in the Lord. Mark these words, write them on your heart. But when you do that, do not grow apathetic. Instead, work towards trying to realize this vision that God has presented to us from time immemorial, in which every single person has dignity and respect, even when the world does not give it to them. Keep moving forward in faith and hope and love.
AMEN
In this long season after Pentecost, we are 17 weeks into it, we have been hearing stories from the Gospel According to Mark. We have been working our way through Mark’s telling of the Gospel, and we have been hearing stories of Jesus’s teaching and healing, stories of calling Disciples, gathering people around him. We have heard news of him spreading about, and people wondering who this guy is.
This has all been taking place in the region of Galilee, which is the area around the Sea of Galilee. But today we have moved out of that section of the Gospel, which is about the first third of the Gospel, and have moved into the middle of the Gospel. One of the indicators that we have moved is that we are in a different geographical place. We are now in Caesarea Philippi, north of Galilee, and Jesus is with the Disciples.
This section of the Gospel, this middle chunk, is book-ended by two stories about the physical healing of blind people. In literary criticism, when there are two book-ends like this, it is pointing to something that is in between them. So what does it mean to have two stories of the healing of blind people on either end of this middle section of the Gospel?
I would argue that we have these two stories of healing of blindness because what Jesus is doing in this middle section is trying to heal the blindness of the Disciples. He is trying to open the eyes of the Disciples to understand who he is and what it is that God is doing with him in this world. We begin to hear about the cross and the resurrection, and we will hear it time and again through the next several weeks, in various ways, with implications about what that means for us and our faith.
This section starts out with Jesus asking the question that everyone has been asking, who do people say that I am? I wonder if Jesus is testing his Disciples: are your eyes open, Disciples? Do I need to heal any blindness here? But in answer to his question, the Disciples say that some say you are John the Baptist, others say you are Elijah or one of the other Prophets. By the way, Herod, in the story we heard several weeks ago, thought that Jesus was John the Baptist “who I killed”, raised from the dead. Then Jesus asks the Disciples, then who do you say that I am? Peter steps forward and says, you are the Messiah. Remember that Mark gives us the abridged version of all these stories, because a longer version says, you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus says A+, Peter. That is fantastic. You got it right. In the other Gospels Jesus says, you, Peter, will be the rock on which I build my church. That’s pretty impressive. Peter got it right, and he is important for having done it.
Then the Gospel goes on to say that Jesus explains what that means. He starts talking about having to die and be raised again. This scandalizes Peter, so Peter pulls Jesus aside and asks, what are you saying? You can’t say this. This is not what the Messiah is all about. Jesus rebukes him and says, get behind me Satan. That rock on which Jesus is going to build his church is now the rock on which people will stumble. Peter goes from being right to being wrong. He goes from understanding to not understanding.
I am going to argue that Jesus is going to use this middle section of the Gospel trying to convince the Disciples of what this is all about. He is going to try to open their eyes, heal their blindness, and is not going to succeed. We know where this story goes: the Disciples continue to misunderstand Jesus and what he is all about. This Peter, who gets it right and then gets it wrong, is going to get it right again. Then he will get it wrong again, then right, then wrong, then right, and then he dies. That is the story of Peter. A lot of back and forth.
We will talk about all the stuff that Jesus is trying to open the Disciples’ eyes to see in the coming weeks. But today I want to focus on Peter. Peter is understood to be the great exemplar of the faith, and I think that is right. I think he is a great exemplar of the faith, but the reason is because he gets is wrong. Here is the thing about faith: it is not about getting it all right. It is not about being perfect. That is not what our salvation is based upon. I know there are over 20,000 denominations in this country, because people thinking that getting it all right is the most important thing. When they think someone else has it wrong, they start a new church.
But that is not what the story of Peter shows us should be the way. The story of Peter shows that faith is not about getting everything right, faith is about following Jesus and trying. Faith is not about getting it all right, faith is about taking the journey, knowing that we can’t fully understand and know everything, at least not during this mortal life. As St. James says in the Epistle today, we all make mistakes. As St. Paul says elsewhere, we see through a glass darkly, we see through a mirror dimly. It is impossible for us to understand it all, to get it all right. It is impossible for us to be perfect.
Therefore, faith is not about being perfect. Faith is about trying to follow Jesus, trying to draw close to him, trying to shape our lives based on what he is teaching us, knowing we will not get all the way there perfectly. That is a hard message for us, for in so much of our lives we are trying to be perfect. We think that our value, our worth is found in perfection. We think that about our professional careers, we think that about our relationships, and, oh, my, do people think that about their faith. But that is not the way of God. The way of God is the way of Peter, in which Peter, who gets it wrong, is still beloved. And not just beloved, he is raised up as one of the most important of them all, in spite of all the ways he gets it wrong.
The next story is the story of the Transfiguration. Peter is right and then he is wrong, but Jesus still tells Peter he will take him on a special trip up this mountain. Not because Peter has gotten it all right, but because Jesus invites him to do it.
There is a thing in our faith we like to call grace. Perhaps you have heard of it. If you have sung the words, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.” Grace.
Another word you might think of is mercy. Another important word is forgiveness. These things are vastly more important that perfection. Here is the fact: God has already offered you grace. God has already been merciful to you. God has already forgiven you for all the ways that you and I have fallen short of what God’s dream is for this world, because God loves you. That love is not conditional upon anything that you have done. That love is because of who God is. God loves you as you are. The life of faith is not trying to earn that love, the life of faith is trying to live in that love, and then realizing there is enough of that love to share with other people. The life of faith is a pilgrimage. It is not about the destination, it is about the journey, the journey of drawing close to God, trying time and again. Sometimes on that journey we are going to be right, and sometimes we are going to be wrong. But in all of it, God loves you and God is calling you, God is inviting you to draw closer, to learn to open your eyes, to heal whatever blind spots you have so you can move closer towards that dream that God has of a world saturated with love. You are not going to get there perfectly, for we all make mistakes. And that’s OK.
Here is what I ask of you, my friends: try and offer a little bit of grace. Try and offer a little bit of mercy. Try to be a little bit forgiving to yourself. Start with yourself. And if you get a chance, offer that grace and that mercy and that forgiveness to your neighbor as well. But start with yourself. Recognize that perfection is not the goal, but try each day, day in and day out, to draw a little closer to God, to see God a little more clearly, and to give yourself that grace, that mercy, and that forgiveness that God has already offered you.
AMEN.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, be present in these words. Through them may we know ourselves, one another, and you, our loving God, better. In the name of the Lover, The Beloved, and Love itself. Amen.
Well, no more bread today! Instead, what we have are some pretty biting words from Jesus about traditions. When the Pharisees and some scribes notice Jesus’ disciple aren’t observing all the rules for cleansing, and purifying, especially around eating and food prep, they ask: “What gives Jesus? Your followers aren’t keeping the rules, they aren’t following the tradition of the elders, why not?”
I wonder, is this an honest question from them, or an attempt to discredit the upstart rabbi from Nazareth who’s rapidly gaining popularity? Based on Jesus’ strong reply, I expect their questions are more like accusations.
“Hey, why don’t your followers follow the rules? What kind of teacher are you?” Jesus calls them out.
“Oh, I see, you’re the ones the prophet Isaiah warned about! You hypocrites!” Ouch! “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” On the surface they are doing all the right things. Being very diligent in keeping all the traditions of the elders passed on through generations. But why? Are their hearts in it?
Jesus accuses them of abandoning God’s commandments and creating their own human traditions. Ouch again! BUT…I wonder if I’m guilty of the same thing. It’s sure easier to SAY the right things, to GO through the motions, to come to church on Sunday for an hour and then just go on our ways. Much easier to talk about love and justice and racial reconciliation and climate care, than actually DOING IT, right? Do we take refuge in our traditions, talking a good talk, putting our human traditions over what God is really asking us to do to bring about God’s dream for our world?
In our Epistle we heard James’ famous lines: “…Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” He goes on to explain what pure religion is: to care for orphans and widows in their distress. To DO something to make our world a better place, whatever, wherever, however we can. To act in love. Love for others, love for the marginalized, the ostracized, the oppressed, those in need, even our enemies! Jesus is saying that we should stop worrying so much about traditions and observations and good words, and we should start DOING something to share God’s love! It’s not about being clean or defiled, or the right or wrong way to worship. What it’s all about is acting from our hearts with love. If we have our hearts set on doing God’s will, God’s good, and loving work for our world, then the question of clean and unclean is moot. We can’t get so wrapped up in just the right way to do this or that in terms of our spirituality. What Jesus tells and shows us, is that it’s all about how we see others and how we interact with them. Are we acting out of compassion? Are we proclaiming by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? Are we seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves? Are we striving for justice and peace? Are we respecting the dignity of every human being? This is pure religion.
How? Start small and go from there. Smile! Be kind! Welcome someone! Where does your heart ache? Is it for the unhoused, for the mentally ill, for those suffering from substance use disorder, for refugees, for immigrants, for the unemployed, for little ones who need stability, who need help to read, who need to know they are seen and loved, for our planet, for our rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans, or, or?
Listen to where God is calling you to act and then go and do your small part to make this world a better place. Show the world the love of God through your actions. Show them that we are Christians by our love, by our love. This is where we should focus our energy and resources. This is pure religion, following the words and examples of Jesus of Nazareth, acting in love and compassion for others. Amen.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about love. I’m not going to rehash that sermon about the centrality of love in Scripture and in our faith, but I do want to revisit a couple of points. I first want to remind you that God loves. God loves you. God loves me. God loves your neighbor. God loves your enemy. God loves everyone, without exceptions. God loves.
The second thing we talked about is that God is love. That is a slight, but important, distinction. God loves is about the doing of God. What does God do? God loves. It is about actions that God takes. God is love is about identity. It is about the being of God. God loves and God is love. They are different and distinct, but related to each other. Because God loves, God is love. God’s identity as love leads to the actions of love. It is important to understand that God’s identity and God’s actions align in this way and are connected to each other. God loves you, not because of what you have done. God loves you for who God is. God loves you because God is love. That means that God’s love for you is not conditional. It is not something you earned. It is not something that you have to be worthy to receive. It is not something that you can lose. It is. God loves you. Why? Because God is love.
The whole idea that God loves you regardless of what you have done, irrespective of your actions, is what we call grace. God’s grace is so enormous that God is going to love you, no matter what. Every once in a while someone will come to me and express concern that they are not worthy enough to receive God’s love. It always breaks my heart. My first reaction is to tell them they are worthy, let me tell you all the wonderful things about you, that God loves you unconditionally. But none of that matters. Because the truth is, even if you were not worthy, God still loves you because of who God is. God loves, not because the object of the affection deserves the love, but because the one offering the love is so full of love that he can do nothing but love you. You cannot earn it, you cannot lose it, you do not deserve it, but that is all beside the point. God loves you already. That is grace.
While we love the idea of love, I think we are challenged by the idea of grace because we do not live in a society that teaches us much about grace. We live in a society that says your worth is in what you achieve, how good you are, maybe even being good isn’t enough, but you need to be great. You need to be perfect. We live in a society that says what goes around comes around, and that people deserve the good things that happen to them, or deserve the bad things that happen to them. And I have to tell you, my friends, that that is not the way of God. That is not the way of our God who is so full of grace that He will love you even if you don’t actually deserve it. And I am not saying there is a person here who doesn’t deserve it, but even if you don’t, God still loves you. That is grace.
For the past month or so we have been reading from the Book of Ephesians as our New Testament reading each Sunday, and this is what Paul has been laying out in his letter. He is talking about the enormous love of God. Paul said the height and breadth and depth and length of God’s love is more than you can imagine. God’s love surpasses knowing. If you close your eyes and imagine the length and breadth and depth and height of God’s love, you will still not imagine the whole thing. It is more than we can imagine. Paul says that the love God has for us is grace. We didn’t deserve it. He says we were still in sin when we received the grace, because grace is an undeserved gift that you are given. Paul tells the Ephesians God loves you, you didn’t do anything to earn it, and you are not going to lose it. God loves you because God has super abundant grace that He showers down upon this earth. That is the essence of Paul’s letter up to this reading.
Today’s reading is answering the question, so what? God loves me, I don’t deserve it, it is a gift, it is grace, so what? Paul says, so then. So then put away all falsehood. Speak with truth. Be angry, it’s OK to be angry, it happens, it’s an emotion, but do not sin. Walk that fine line. Thieves must give up stealing. I love that line because it reminds us that the grace came before the good work. The thief is still stealing but they already have the grace, so Paul says to give up the stealing. Labor honestly with your own hands. Share with the needy. Do not let evil come out of your mouth, but make sure the words coming out of your mouth build others up. Put away from yourself all bitterness, put away all wrath, put away all anger, put away all wrangling, put away all slander, put away all malice. Instead, be kind. Be tenderhearted. Forgive one another. This is a list of concrete ways that we can respond to God’s grace. We do not do all of these good and wonderful things to earn God’s grace, to earn God’s love, because we already have that love through grace. These things are instead our response. It is an order of operations. God loves you, therefore do these good things. Paul’s list is not meant to be exhaustive, it is just a list of suggestions. I imagine Paul talking out loud to his scribe, thinking of ideas. I’m sure he missed some, and I imagine you could come up with some ideas for yourself. What is it in your life that you need to do to respond to God’s love given to you in grace?
In the end, Paul’s letter goes on to say, therefore be imitators of God. All of these ideas that Paul throws out, all the ideas that you can come up with are all meant to help us be imitators of God, the God who is love. It goes on to say, and live in love. Be imitators of God, and live in love. We do that, not to earn God’s love, rather we do it because God has already given the love. The grace of God is so abundant, God has given us so much love that we have some to give away. We have so much love that God gave us that you will never run out of that love yourself. There is more than enough love to go around.
So, my friends, this week take some time to reflect on all we have been learning these past few weeks. Take some time to remember God’s love for you. Try to imagine how enormous God’s love is. Try to imagine the height by imagining the highest thing you can think if, and then go even farther. Imagine the longest thing you can imagine, and then go longer. Imagine the broadest thing you can think of, and then go broader. Imagine the deepest thing you can think of and go deeper. When you have that in your head and think how enormous that is, remember you have not gone far enough. God’s love is even more than that. Try to stretch your brain every day to imagine God’s love as even bigger than you imagined it the day before. Remember that God has given it to you whether or not you earn it, whether or not you deserve it. You are loveable because God loves you, and it is nothing more than that. He does not love you because you do something special. You are loveable because God loves you. Reflect on that, and then ask yourself, what can I do in response. I, who have this enormous amount of love filling me every day, how can I share that same love with someone else? At work, at home, at school, on the street, in the store, wherever you are think of how you can share that love with my neighbors, with my enemies, with all of creation. How can I share that love that God has already given me in grace? Why? Because God loves you.
AMEN.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, speak through these words. Help us dare to believe you have all the food we need. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, one God. Amen.
In today’s Gospel we pick up right where we left off last Sunday. It’s the next day and the crowd of thousands who had been fed with five loaves and two fish, are looking for Jesus. They know there was only one boat and they didn’t see him get into it. How did he get to the other side? Jesus, in typical fashion, answers their wondering with more food for reflection.
“You’re looking for me because you got your fill of bread? You should be looking for the kind of food that never spoils, the kind of nourishment that’s for eternal life. That’s what the Son of Man will give you. That’s what you should be working towards.”
Umm, ok Jesus. We were just thinking about all that extra bread and kind of wondering how you got all the way across the sea without boat. Perplexed, they ask what they need to do. Isn’t this just like you and me? Don’t we want to know exactly what we need to do? Give me the checklist. Lay it all out. What plan do I have to follow? How many good things do I have to do? Which deeds are worth the most points? Jesus, once again, offers a less than satisfactory answer, exactly what they WEREN’T looking for.
“Here it is. This is it…Just believe. Just put your trust and confidence in the one whom God has sent.”
That’s it? Hmm. How will we know, FOR SURE? What signs will you give so that we can SEE and believe? What works (apparently they’ve already forgotten about t the 12 baskets of leftovers!) As Jews they know well the story of the manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and so they bring this us up to Jesus. What about that? Can you do that? Jesus again, ups the ante, and goes MUCH deeper. First, he reminds them that it was God and NOT Moses who provided, and then he explains that it’s God who give the “true” bread from heaven. It is this bread which comes down from heaven (read incarnation, God taking on human form to live with us as one of us), it is this bread that gives life not just to wandering Israelites, but to the whole world. “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6: 33).
This sounds even better than the manna that our ancestors ate, give us this bread please! And then, BOOM, Jesus drops the bomb. It’s me! I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Jesus has disclosed to this crowd and the disciples, and to us, his divine identity and his purpose. Jesus is what we need to live. Jesus has come to feed us, to nourish us, to offer us life through relationship.
In John’s Gospel Jesus says it in a slightly different way. “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus is here to bring us full and abundant life. Isn’t that what we’re looking for? Isn’t that what we’re hungry and thirsty for? SO many other things are competing for our hunger and desires. SO many other things that we thing will fill us up. But no. They don’t. They won’t. What we need to fill us up is Jesus.
This was definitely mind-blowing for the people of Jesus’ time and it still just as hard, maybe even harder for us to wrap our minds around it today. That’s why we come together to listen, to talk, to ask questions, to remember and experience together. And we try to make sense of these perplexing words of Jesus.
What if Jesus really is the bread of life? What if Jesus really did come to bring us life, to fill us up, so our hunger and thirst would be satisfied? If we embark on this journey to understand these words and their implications, if we dare to hope, to trust and bring who we are to the God of love, it just might be that we’ll find what we have been hungering for. Today, as you come forward to receive communion, the bread and wine, body and blood of Christ, I invite you to ponder these words of Jesus for you and your life today. Whoever, however, wherever you are, you are invited to this journey together with this St. Mary’s community and SO many others who have sought to understand and take in these words of Jesus.
Jesus has come to give us life, to feed us, sustain us and restore our relationship of love with ourselves, one another, with our earth, and with the divine dance of love itself, with the parent creator God, the human brother God, and the flowing, inspiring, comforting Spirit God. So come! Come to the table! Join me! Join us! Join with followers of Jesus around the world and throughout time! Come to receive the bread of life! For surely, whoever comes seeking to know Jesus will never be hungry again. And whoever trusts in Jesus’ loving care will never be thirsty again.
Amen.
In St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians that we heard today, Paul offers a prayer for the people. He prays that they may be rooted and grounded in love. And he also prays that they may know the height and length and breadth and depth of the love of God. A love that surpasses knowledge, Paul says. When people are filled with this love, he says that God, through us, can do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine.
Love. Scripture offers a consistent witness and testimony to God’s love. From beginning to end, from the first creation to the new creation and everything in between, time and again we hear of how much God loves us. Sometimes directly, and sometimes through the story we hear of the ways that God loves us. Scripture says not only does God love us, but God is love. Love is not just an action, it is not something that God does, but love is the core of God’s very being. It is God’s identity to be love. So when we say that Jesus is the Incarnation of God in this world, another way you could put it would be that Jesus is the Incarnation of love in this world. Just like the old Christmas hymns puts it:
Love came down at Christmas.
Love all lovely, love divine.
Love was born at Christmas.
Stars and Angels gave the sign.
Jesus, in his life, shared that love, radiating that love in both word and deed. He would teach about it. Remember when he was asked what is the greatest commandment? He said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Not only does he say these two are the greatest of all the commandments, he goes on to say that every other commandment is also grounded and rooted in love. For he says, on these two hang all the law and the prophets. All of it goes back to love. All of it has to be understood through the lens of love. When they push back and ask, and who is my neighbor, he says it is pretty expansive. What is the height and length and breadth and depth of that love? Your neighbor has to include the person who annoys you, and the person who makes your blood boil. It also must include the person you might call your enemy. Jesus says this love has no exceptions. Love encompasses everyone. That is the height and the length and the breadth and the depth of the love of God. It surpasses knowledge, because it is really hard to do. But that is what Jesus asks of us. That is the kind of love he wants us to embody in this world.
Jesus also shares that love through his actions, like when he has compassion. Time and again the Gospel says Jesus had compassion on them, or Jesus had pity on them. He is exuding and radiating that love. He also shares that love when he heals people. Time and again when he heals people, he is sharing that love.
I would also argue he is sharing that love in our Gospel today when he feeds the five thousand. When I was in college, our college chaplain used to start every meal with a blessing: Food, God’s love made edible. I think that is what Jesus is getting at in the Gospel today. He is feeding the people, giving then food, satiating their hunger, but also feeding them with love. He is filling that spiritual hunger to be loved that every single one of us has. It is more than just the food. It is love. Jesus is sharing love in deed, in action.
How does this feeding happen? There are five thousand people, more than six month’s wages would be needed to buy the food, but Jesus does it with five loaves and two fish. There are two theories, but I would like to point out that the Gospel does not tell us how it happened. The first theory is that Jesus makes more, which is a good theory. He is God and he can work a miracle. The second theory is that the kid who offered the five loaves and two fish was not the only person with food that day. What are the odds that only one person in five thousand happened to have food with them and no one else did? It is probable that people brought food with them when they left their house. And when they saw the kid share his food and saw Jesus’s faith that it would be enough, they also shared their food. When the basket came by, some people took and some people put. In the end there was so much food that there were leftovers. Both of these interpretations are miracles. God made more, the people shared more. Both are miracles of God’s love.
The abundance of God’s love is so enormous. Remember the height and length and breadth and depth of God’s love means that there are leftovers. There is so much love to go around that there is more than we need. That is the way of this world, the way that God has made this world. We get so afraid there won’t be enough that we keep it all to ourselves. But Jesus says, no. There is enough of God’s love in this world to be shared, and he wants us to share that love. With Paul’s prayer, to be rooted and grounded in that love, and to understand the height, length, breadth, and depth of that love, God, through us, can do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine, just as God did with that kid who shared his love by giving his food to feed the people. When we do these acts of love, when we share that love, it creates a ripple effect that keeps radiating out.
So, my friends, take some time this week to think on this love. Spend some time reflecting on how high and how long and how broad and how deep this love is. Every time you think that you have grasped how large it is, remember it is beyond knowledge, so it is even bigger than you imagine. Keep stretching your imagination into this larger and larger vision of love that God has, a love that leaves leftovers. As you spend time reflecting on that, filling your imagination, filling your mind, filling your heart, filling your being with that love, then go and share it. I promise you will not run out of love. There is always more. God will keep filling you up. Go and share that love with your friends, with your family, with strangers, even with your enemy. Share that love, the love that God offers you.
AMEN.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, enliven these words and help us to plant the seeds of your kingdom. Amen.
In this section of Mark’s Gospel Jesus is teaching by way of parables, specifically parables about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is as if…With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like… Parables are designed to get us thinking. They don’t offer straightforward explanations or definitions. They can be shocking, by design, intended to free us from our normal way of thinking about our world and God. They offer us images, similes and metaphors to help us make sense of the divine. Parables can have many different meanings. They speak to deeper messages and understandings about how God relates to humankind. Parables are a part of Jesus’ Jewish culture and a means by which he seeks to engage and relate to those who seek to know him better, and those who are afraid of his popularity and radical ways. The Kingdom of God is one of the things that Jesus talks about the most. The kingdom of God is not the “usual” type of Kingdom. Yes, we can use kingdom words and images to describe God as we attribute human qualities to the Divine. But it’s important to draw a difference between the kind of kingdoms, kings and lords that we know about, and the type of power that God wields, the type of rule that Jesus proclaims. This is where parables come in.
Jesus is saying, you know one way of thinking, the ways things have always been, the way they are, the way you expect them to always be, but wait just a second, what if…how about this type of power and rule? What Jesus has come to proclaim is a new way of interacting with each other and ourselves and with creation. A force that is pervasive, and as our parables would suggest today, even invasive. A type of rule and kingdom that is stronger than all of the terrible, awful, hateful things in our world. The power of love.
“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, one does not know how” (Mark 3: 26-7). How does this dream that God has for humanity and creation come about? How does it unfold? It’s like so many seeds spread all over the ground, tossed here and there, so many different types of seed sown on so many different soils by so many different sowers, and then after a good night’s sleep, we awake to find sprouts pushing their way up in our lives and the lives of others and in our world, here and there, we know not how.
As a kid, did you ever have that little dixie cup of soil and seeds and then you water it and put it in the windowsill and wait, and wait, and then…all of the sudden, overnight, like magic, tiny, tender shoots appear? Wow! New life!
What was once hidden, seemingly nothing, has revealed itself. Little green life just popping up. This is what God’s dream is like for us and for our world. We don’t know quite how or quite where or from whom God’s love, grace, and mercy will push into our lives, but they do! And if you haven’t experienced any tender shoots in your life lately, don’t despair, sleep and keep watch, God’s love WILL push its way into the soil of your life.
We are to be sowers, all of us, scattering the seeds that come from our experience of God’s love for us. I love this image of us just going all around, here and there a seed, a kind word, a smile, a compassionate conversation, a very real help in a time of trouble, a shared experience of the divine, a powerful moment together. Here a seed, there a seed, everywhere a seed. And then we just wait. SO much potential energy. SO many possibilities for planting the loving kindness God intends for us all! Imagine the harvest! Imagine reaping bundles and bundles of care, inclusion and compassion. What an amazing time for humanity. What an amazing place our world will be!
With what can we compare the Kingdom of God? It is like the bright fields of tulips, daffodils, lavender. Beautiful to behold, fragrant, offering joy, color, and life. It’s like everyone, EVERYONE having what they need to prosper.
Affordable housing with wrap around care to meet the physical, mental, and spiritual health needs that we have. A place for everyone to belong, to feel valuable, to know that they are loved unconditionally. Yes, it is a dream, a different kind of kingdom, a different way of seeking, thinking and being. This kind of kingdom, this inbreaking of God’s love spread all over our world, is at the same time already here and not yet here. Already present AND not yet fully realized. With our help, with our work scattering seed, it WILL begin to slowly push up out of the soil, to unfurl, grow and spread. Even though we may plant miniscule mustard seeds, they can and will grow and grow and grow and become giant trees of shelter, welcome, and community, sending forth God’s love into our world, working to bring about God’s dream for us. God’s way of love to rule throughout our lives and our world. Get to work! Start sowing! Amen.
The Book of Genesis has two stories about the creation of the world. These stories are not meant to be science or history, but that doesn’t mean they don’t contain truth. They contain a lot of truth, really important truth that we need to remember: theological truths, moral truths, ontological truths, truth about who we are.
Our first reading today comes from the second creation story. But before we talk about that, we need to talk about the first creation story because these two stories are in dialogue with each other. They are in conversation, and we can’t understand one if we don’t understand the other.
You know how the first creation story begins in the First Chapter of Genesis: In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was Tohu Vavohu, a Hebrew word that only shows up here. Scholars, because they cannot cross reference this word, have some good guesses. It’s something like a formless void, or welter and waste, or primordial chaos. Into that chaos God is making order. God is taking all this stuff and creating objects, creating creatures that have their own being, their own identity, their own separation, their own boundaries. God makes light. God makes water and sky. God makes land. God makes sun, moon, and stars. God makes birds and all the sea creatures and all the land animals. This all takes about six days, according to the story. At the end of each day, God looks over his creation and says, it is good. It is good. It is oh, so very good, God even says on some of those days. And on the sixth day, the last of the land creatures that God made was humanity. You and me. And it says that when God made humanity, he made it in God’s very image. It also says that when God made humanity, God invited, or perhaps we should say God commanded, us to be stewards of the rest of creation, to care for it.
That is the first creation story. In this story there are so many truths for us. I would reckon that we focus on this first creation story more than the second one. I think it is meet and right for us to focus on this story because there are some important truths that we need to remember. We need to remember that in all the chaos of life, God is in the midst of it and God is at work. God is continuing to create, God is continuing to bring things together, God is continuing to bring order out of the chaos.
We need to remember and keep before us the truth that we are made in God’s image. You are made in God’s image. When you look in the mirror in the morning, you are staring at the image of God. That might be a hard truth for some of us to realize and accept. We might not feel so good about that image. There are a few gray hairs, a few age spots are appearing. But we need to be reminded that we are made in God’s image, as is all of humanity. That means your neighbor is made in God’s image. So if you look to your left and look to your right, that is the image of God. That person, the neighbor next to you, is the image of God. We need to hold that truth in front of us. That also means that our enemy is made in the image of God. That is the hardest one of all, isn’t it? The person who makes your blood boil, they, too, are made in the image of God. So we need to treat ourselves, and our neighbors, and our enemies with the respect and dignity that that God-bearer is worthy of. That is truth we need to remember when we read this first creation account.
We also need to remember that we must care for God’s creation. We must be stewards. We are at a point in humanity’s ability and power that we can destroy creation in ways we have never been able to before. We need to remember that is not God’s vision, God’s dream. God’s vision for us is not to consume or destroy creation. God’s vision is for creation to nourish us, and we are to nourish it, to be caretakes and stewards of that creation. These are important truths that we need to hold up in front of us, all the time.
But there is the second creation story. It is saying, I have things I want to add to this conversation. These additions to the conversation are not necessarily in conflict. For instance, the second creation story reinforces the message that we are to be stewards of creation. Both creation stories say that. But the second creation story also says, all right, Mr. First Creation Story, you think that God is making order out of chaos. But what about the chaos I still see all around me? Are you telling me my eyes are lying, that I don’t see all the pain and suffering that still exists in this world? The second creation story is making things a little more complicated.
The second creation story is also saying, OK, you may be made in the image of God, but let me tell you a story about taking that a little bit too far by trying to be like God. The second creation story is saying it is OK to remember that you are made in the image of God, but you are not God. That is an important distinction the second creation story is making. You may be made in God’s image, but you are not God. It is a distinction not unlike having a good healthy self esteem or being a narcissist. You are made in God’s image. Do not forget that fact. But also remember you are not God. Let God be God and you be you. You are the one who carries God’s image, but don’t put yourself in God’s place. The second creation story is offering this corrective by saying if you take this too far, it might go off the rails.
In the first creation story, everything that was made was good. The second creation story confirms that, but it also says there is still bad. While you may be good deep in your core, that doesn’t mean we don’t fall short of the dream, the vision, the mark that God has set. Falling short of the mark, falling short of the dream that God has is called sin. I know we don’t like to use that word all that much, but it is an important one to remember. Every single person is good, and yet sometimes we don’t live up to that. The whole point is not to make you feel shame, but to say, come back to that good. Keep trying, because you are good, and you can do good things.
So, my friends, hold these two stories up before you. Don’t just pick one, but hold both of them up. Remember your goodness. Remember that you are made in God’s image. Remember that God is at work in this world bringing order out of chaos. Remember to be a good steward of God’s creation. But also remember that sometimes we miss the mark, and when we do, try again. For as it says in the Psalm, there is plenteous redemption in the Lord. God’s mercy and God’s grace abound. We may be prone to wander, as a good old hymn writer put it, but remember that grace is amazing, as another hymn writer wrote. Keep trying. Keep coming back, remembering the goodness of the Lord. Remember that you are made in God’s image, as is your neighbor and your enemy. Treat them with the respect worthy of that image, but don’t try and be God. Let God be God, and you be you. Because God loves you without question, without reservation. God made you in love and God loves you more than you can ask for, or begin to imagine.
AMEN.
Ah, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews in Jerusalem. He was a teacher, a member of the Sanhedrin. He was also a Pharisee, so as such would have been part of the group who felt so threatened by Jesus’ increasing popularity that some of them set about plotting to have him arrested and executed, thus eliminating once and for all this troublesome rabble rouser from Galilee. But Nicodemus was different. While apparently maintaining appearances among his colleagues around the temple, Nicodemus was intrigued by what Jesus had to say. Sadly, he couldn’t admit that to anyone because unlike Peter and Andrew, James and John, he had something to lose by openly claiming to be a follower of Jesus that they never had to worry about: status. Nicodemus was a well-respected leader, one of the in-crowd at the temple. Admitting that what Jesus was teaching made sense would have cost him his standing among his peers.
So Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, wanting to talk to this remarkable young man who was attracting so much attention, but without any of his fellow Pharisees knowing about it. Unfortunately in the conversation that ensues, Nicodemus comes across a bit like a Biblical literalist talking to an Episcopalian. When Jesus tells him that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above,” Nicodemus completely misses the “from above” part, wanting to know instead how someone can be born again after having grown old. You can almost hear Jesus slapping his forehead as he thinks to himself, Geez this guy’s supposed to be one of the smart ones! But Jesus goes on to try to clarify that what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. He then uses an analogy, comparing being born of the Spirit to the wind. You can hear the wind, he says, you can feel it, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with someone born of the Spirit. You may feel their effect on you, they may move you to do all manner of good things, but it won’t be obvious from whence comes their power. Poor, literal Nicodemus is baffled. How can these things be?
How can these things be? We understand the wind. We know what causes it. We know we can’t control it though sailors have known for millennia how to use it to power their vessels large and small. Nowadays more and more places are using it to generate electricity. But the Spirit, what do we really understand about this third person of the Trinity? We believe the Creator God, God the Father in older language, is the force that brought into being all that is. We believe that over time, after life evolved into human form and those humans became less and less what God might have hoped for, God sent Jesus, not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. Notice how that’s worded. It doesn’t say that by living among us Jesus saved the world, but rather that by coming into the world Jesus made it possible for the world to be saved. In other words, there is still work to be done, and we, the people who profess to be followers of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit in the same way the wind powers a sailboat, are the ones who have to do it. Which in some respects brings us back to Nicodemus. Do we have the nerve to live our faith in the light of day, or do we feel the need to simply lurk about trying to be faithful Christians in the dark?
It’s hard these days to be open about much of anything. It seems as though more and more people see the world in terms of us and them, where they, whoever they may be, are seen as the enemy, people to be feared. We tip toe around each other, afraid to say anything that might “set off” someone we suspect, we may not even know for sure, has a perspective different from our own. This is not how Jesus taught us to live. Rather ,Fear not! is what Jesus said over and over again, and he meant it! We simply have to be able to talk with each other. Self-segregating into little pockets of like-minded people only makes everything worse. Back in 1991, following a truly horrible diatribe about homosexuality at a Diocesan Convention, the Diocesan Committee on Human Sexuality was formed. A year later this group presented to the diocese a five part program intended for use during Lent, 1993, entitled Sexuality: God’s Good Gift. I was attending a small church at that time which has since closed, that was located in a very conservative community. It will likely come as no surprise, given how small the church was, that I was asked to facilitate this Lenten program. Okay, so I was comfortable about leading the first three sessions, but the fourth addressed Gay and Lesbian Sexuality. I knew beforehand this entire program would be challenging for many members of that congregation, so I was genuinely nervous about how that particular session would be received. Nonetheless, the vicar asked a lesbian friend to participate that evening, which she agreed to do. People listened and participated - we had very strict rules about engaging in dialogue not debate - and at the end of the evening a man whom I liked and respected greatly though I knew we had different perspectives on many things came up to me and said, “You know, there’s a kind of joke I’ll never tell again.” Wow, I thought to myself as I drove home utterly exhausted, this program actually is making a difference. Conversations around sexuality have continued to evolve over time. Many people’s attitudes have changed. Ten years after I led that program the Episcopal Church ordained our first openly gay bishop in 2003, and twelve years after that at General Convention in Salt Lake City in 2015 we approved rites for blessing same sex marriages within days of the Supreme Court declaring same sex marriage legal. While many of us felt that day that great progress had been made in terms of allowing people to live out their sexuality as is right for them, not everyone shared that perspective. While the vote to approve the marriage rites was by orders and was overwhelmingly in favor of doing so, the vote was not unanimous. There were a few dioceses within the United States as well as most of our off shore dioceses in Central and South America as well as Asia who were opposed. Still, the next morning there was only one deputation who we discovered had left the convention, minus one member who chose to stay. All the other deputations continued to be part of us, even though we had different perspectives on that particular issue. We need to be able to function like that now in society at large with regard to the many challenging issues that confront us.
The question of course is how? There's no doubt the world has changed dramatically since 2015. The ability to have a calm discussion during which differing perspectives are shared seems to be a dying art. Conversations, be they public or private, seem to devolve much more quickly these days into arguments where each side is determined to prove the other side wrong, rather than opportunities to share differing perspectives that over time might lead if not to agreement, as least to understanding and acceptance of each other as good people with different views. While human sexuality is certainly still a topic that garners plenty of attention, racism, which is linked closely to immigration, the use of vaccines that was thrust into the limelight during the pandemic, the nightmarish situation in Gaza are just some of the issues that seem to divide us into opposing camps in 2024. As it did with human sexuality, the Church has tried to make a difference where it can. I’m currently participating in Sacred Ground, a program produced by the Episcopal Church in an effort to get white people to understand just how pervasive racism is in our country and to recognize our often unwitting participation in it. It’s an excellent program, one that has prompted me to examine how I was raised, what I was taught, and how all of that influences how I live my life today. It is very much designed to get me and others to step out of the dark into the glaring light of today’s conflict-ridden world, to find the courage to move from being spectators of what’s happening in the world to people willing to speak and act in an effort to make a difference. While this course is addressing racism, I would like to think that what I’m learning in that context will carry over into other areas of my life as well.
On the dreadful day of Jesus’ crucifixion Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea in burying Jesus’ body, bringing over a hundred pounds of spices to include when they wrapped the body in the burial shroud. Beyond that very compassionate act, which was done in secret out of fear of how the Jewish authorities might respond, we don’t how Nicodemus lived out the rest of his life. Did he believe and acknowledge that Jesus rose from the dead, or did he go along with the party line that clearly some of Jesus’ followers must have stolen the body? Did he try to walk a sort of existential tightrope, doing his best to follow the teachings of Jesus as far as he could while at the same time keeping up appearances around the temple, or did he at some point openly identify himself as a follower of Jesus? There’s no way we can ever know. What we do know is that enough people have openly followed Jesus teachings down through time to keep them alive over 2000 years after Jesus walked the earth. Will the principles that we hold dear, that we reaffirm every time we recite the baptismal covenant, still be important to anyone ten, twenty, a hundred years from now? That depends on whether we, and the young people learning from us how to follow Jesus, have the courage not merely to live out our faith in the light of day, but to actually be the Light of Christ in a world full of people fearfully hiding from each other in the dark. Amen.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, dance in these words that we may know you better. In the name of our Mother/Father, our Brother Jesus, and the mystery of the Spirit who guides and encourages us. Amen.
Happy Pentecost! Pentekoste or 50th in Greek. Fifty days after Easter when we remember, celebrate, and renew the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first followers of Jesus. The spirit that empowered and emboldened them to share the good news of Jesus’ life, death, ascension, and resurrection. Today we wear our red or other “flamey” colors and we have our amazing streamers, bringing to life for us the Spirit’s flow. Fifty days ago we celebrated the ultimate triumph of love over evil. Jesus, God incarnate, came down to live as one of us and to give himself as an offering, the ultimate example of sacrificial love, showing us that love always has the last word, that love, ALWAYS wins. And that nothing, nothing, can separate us from the love of God demonstrated by the resurrections of Jesus. And so, our Easter acclamation from Easter Sunday and throughout this season including today is: Alleluia, Christ is risen! (The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!).
And so, today, after the glorious resurrection, and the ascension, we now celebrate that coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The description of this awesome event we heard about in the lesson from Acts today.
There was a sound like the rush of a violent wind and divided tongues, as of fire, appeared and rested on each of them. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages. And pretty soon a crowd gathered to see what was going on they were bewildered because each person heard the disciples speaking in their native language proclaiming the Good News.
What an amazing picture! These followers of Jesus, men and women, were filled with the Holy Spirit. They each got their own flame hat, and that’s not all, they could also speak whatever language the person they were talking to spoke! So they just went off sharing the good news of God’s love demonstrated in Jesus to every person gathered there from whatever place, ethnicity or language. SO COOL! The Holy Spirit gave them what they needed for that moment to share the message of God’s healing, inclusive love.
And today, the Holy Spirit continues that bewildering, inspiring work in our world and in our time in moments and contexts with specific people in our lives who need to hear how much God loves them. Who need to hear how they are forgiven, how they are valued, how they belong.
Did you know that you were baptized with the Holy Spirit just like these first disciples?
“Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church” (BCP. p. 298)
During the baptism service we pray: “Fill them with your holy and life-giving Spirit” (BCP, p. 305). And: “We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.”
And: “Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy
Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the
forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of
grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit” (BCP, p. 308)
And one of my favorite things is to mark the sign of the cross on peoples’ forehead with chrism and pronounce: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever” (ibid).
In our baptism we receive this amazing power of the Holy Spirit to guide, strengthen, and comfort us on this earth. Just like these first followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost, God and has sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This gift that Jesus calls the Advocate, the Spirit who speaks for us and who champions our cause. The Spirit watches over, protects and comforts us.
And the gift of the Spirit testifies to the truth of God’s goodness in Jesus, in creation from the beginning of time, and revealed in our lives whenever and wherever love shines forth. The catechism tells us that “we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we…are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation (BCP. p. 852).
This gift of the Spirit is our guide, helping us discern what is good and right and worthy of our time, energy, and care. And just like those first Spirit-filled disciples at the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is MOST definitely still at work here and now in our lives. May we, this Pentecost, recognize and receive the power of the Holy Spirit that flows within, around, and through each one of us, and so empowered, may we share the good news of a loving, liberating, life-giving God. Come Holy Spirit, come, fill our lives with an abiding sense of your presence and courage to share your love with our hurting world. Amen.
This past Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension. On Ascension we commemorate that moment when Jesus took the Disciples, 40 days after his Resurrection, out to the Mount of Olives and gave them some final words, some last wisdom, and then ascended up into heaven.
This moment was a second death for the Disciples. The first death was on Good Friday, and they had begun the process of grieving when their grief was interrupted by the Resurrection. In the following 40 days they had encounters with Jesus, wild and wonderful experiences of the Risen Lord with them in person, in the flesh. We heard many of those stories at the beginning of the Easter season. Like Easter Sunday when Mary Magdalene had the experience of encountering Jesus by the empty tomb. We heard both John and Luke’s versions of the Disciples gathered together in a locked room in their fear, and Jesus appeared among them and showed them his wounds. There are other stories, like the road to Emmaus when two Disciples were walking and Jesus appeared to them. They did not know it was him, but in the breaking of the bread they realized that Jesus had been with them that entire time. Stories like the Disciples going back to work on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus calling them from the shore in the early morning and feeding them some freshly cooked fish. There are other stories that we don’t have. They were not recorded in the Gospels, but we do hear tell of them.
And we have this final Resurrection experience where Jesus meets the Disciples at the Mount of Olives. He says this is it. I am going back. You are not going to see me again like that. This is the second death, and the Disciples start that grieving process again. Like so many of us in grief, their first response is just to be stuck. They just stand there, looking up. It takes awhile, but finally some angels come along and say, what are you looking at? Jesus is gone. You need to get out of here.
The next thing the Disciples do is something normal as we process grief, and try to go back to the way it was before. We pretend the loss didn’t happen. We try to recreate the past, as if we could. What do the Disciples do? They say there used to be twelve of us. We lost one, that Judas guy, so let’s pick a new Judas. So they create a criteria for the next Disciple. The person had to be with them from the beginning, which I find a fascinating detail. The way I had always imagined this as a kid, was that Jesus called his twelve Disciples, and then went out and started preaching and other folks came along for the ride. But that’s not what the Acts of the Apostles says. It says there are a whole bunch of other people there from the very beginning, and one of them is going to be one of the twelve. There are so many people that there are options they can pick from. The Disciples are trying to go back. They are trying to imagine as if they could go back in time and be they way they were.
But here is the problem: you can never go back. You cannot recreate the past. What the Disciples are in is not a new beginning, but rather a liminal in-between time between the Ascension and Pentecost. Even though it is ten days, they have no idea what is going to happen. Next week we will hear the story of how the Holy Spirit came down and lit a fire underneath them to go out into the world and do all kinds of wonderful and amazing works. But they are not there yet. Right now they are in this moment of deep grief, trying to recreate what once was.
What is true for them is true for us. We do the same thing. When we have loss, we so often try to grasp at the world as it once was, whether it is the loss of a loved one, or the loss of some part of our life. We do it as a community, as a country and long for the past. We do it as a church. We long for a church that once was, the booming church of the 1950s that I have heard great things about. Or perhaps the church of the 80s or 90s, which was fantastic. The church before the pandemic, the church of February 2020 was great. I loved it. But it is gone. That ship has sailed. We can’t recreate the past. Instead, what we do is move forward
It's not that the past is completely gone, there is no discontinuity. We bring forth elements of the past, but we can’t recreate it. So what we do is build upon it. The Disciples cannot recreate what their life was like when Jesus was with them, but what they can do is move forward in faith, pulling forward the best of that life. They can keep grounded as the Holy Spirit leads them, stay grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Stay grounded in the way of love that Jesus taught them and Jesus showed them through his kindness, compassion, and healing. They can pull all of that forward, but it will not look the same, it will not be the same. It will be something new and something wonderful, guided by the Holy Spirit.
You already know the ways it is going to shift because you have been hearing that story throughout this Easter season. The Lectionary does this weird thing by messing up the chronology. During the early Easter season we were hearing stories about what the early Church was like in the Acts of the Apostles, but all of those stories are after Pentecost. Now we have gone back. Thursday we heard about the Ascension, today we hear about the in-between time, and next Sunday we will hear about Pentecost. But you know what is going to happen, and that is that the Disciples will find out about the power of the Holy Spirit that will lead them in new ways. Not ways that are discontinuous from Jesus, but ways that build on what Jesus was doing. Last week we heard the story of the way Peter finally comes to realize that Jesus’s message of love, peace, justice, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, and compassion is not just for him and people like him. It is for the Gentiles also. So Peter realizes that they, too, can be baptized. God’s message of love is for all people and all creation. That is different from what they had experienced when it was just the twelve of them with Jesus. But it builds on it in ways that makes so much sense from everything that Jesus showed us.
That is the model for us as we move forward, individually, as a country, as a church. Whatever loss we have experienced, we cannot rebuild it the way it was. It is not possible. But what we can do instead is move forward in faith, continuing to follow the way of love, not as it was, but as it is. What we can do is follow the Holy Spirit and all the wonderful and wild ways the Spirit is moving in this world, lighting a fire under us to go out and bring the message of love and peace and kindness and compassion and forgiveness to a world that so desperately needs it.
The reason we try to go back and rebuild the past is because there is comfort in doing so. We are trying to fill some kind of need in our lives, but the real way to feel that need is through love. We can share that love, we can bring that love to this world that so desperately needs it. We can look for the ways the Holy Spirit is blowing, and we can follow along. Keep doing what Jesus did. Keep loving this world. Keep caring for this world, and we can join in on that good work.
AMEN.
In the Gospel today, Jesus told the Disciples I call you not servants, but friends. Friendship is important. It is important to our well being. There have been numerous studies that show friendship affects our physical health. People with more and deeper friendships live longer, and their years are filled with more good health. Friendship is also important to our psychological well being. There have been studies that show it reduces stress, increases joy, and makes us generally mentally healthier. Friendships are important to us.
The evolutionary psychologists tell us the reason is that we adapted over the years to need friends, because people with more friends survived longer in the really old days. The great theologian, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, was the first and only theologian before the 21st century who did any work on the theology of friendship. He argued that the reason we need friendship is because God implanted the gift of friendship within us at creation. Rievaulx has a fascinating interpretation of how God implanted this need for friendship in the 2nd Chapter of Genesis, the second story of creation. Both evolutionary psychologists and theologians agree that there is something innate in us at creation, the way we were made, that needs friendship. It is important for our physical and psychological well-being, and I would argue it is important for our spiritual wellbeing as well.
The theologian, William James Jennings, did an exploration of this theology and the shift in it that allowed Christians to do horrible things, like engage in the slave trade, engage in segregation. One of his arguments is that there was a shift from a faith of the heart, a faith of relationship and connection, to a faith of the mind, going from intimacy to objectivity. When we did that, we were able to excuse all kinds of horrible things because we stopped caring with our hearts the way that Jesus taught us to do. I think that is what happens when we don’t have friendships. We are not engaged in relationship with people if we are not exercising those muscles of friendship. We turn inward and it causes all kinds of spiritual problems for us. Friendship is important for our spiritual well being as well.
One of the best things you can do for your wellbeing, physical, psychological, and spiritual, is to go and engage with your friends. Call a friend that you haven’t talked to in a while and check in and see how they are doing. It will make a difference in your life.
Jesus takes the importance of friendship to a whole new level in the Gospel today. He says not only can we be friends with each other, but we can be friends with God. This is a remarkable claim for the people first hearing this, who were interested in Greek culture and the words of Aristotle. Aristotle said that you cannot be friends with God. It is impossible. And Jesus says, no. The Father and I are one. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. We can be friends. “What a friend we have in Jesus,” as the hymn says. We can be friends with God through Christ.
What does it mean to be a friend with God? How do we become friends with God? It is no different than any other friendship. How do you make friends? How do you keep friends? The first and most important thing is show up to them. Be near them. Be in their presence. There is a study done of elementary school children that looked at friendships and proximity. They looked at friendship circles and where they sat in the classroom, and found that the number one indicator of who their friend was going to be was how close they sat to them. People on the other side of the room are not going to be as close to you as those who sit in the desk next to you. Proximity matters. We have to be present to people in order to be friends. The pandemic did a number on that. It forced us apart. We need to be with each other. We have that innate need to be with others, to be in relationship. To be friends with people we have to be present with them, to show up to them. The same thing with God. Show up to God, be present with Him. That is what you have all done this morning. You here and those online have shown up to be with God. We are trying to spend time with God. That is what friends do.
This is good. It is an hour with our friend, an hour with God. But there are 167 more hours in the week, so we could also find ways to spend time during the week with God. How do we do that? We do that in prayer, talking to God, listening to God. That is what friends do. They are in each other’s presence. They engage in things together.
Friends do other things together, like going fishing, getting coffee. You can do these things with God as well. There is a monk in France, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, who wrote a book, shared it with his friends, but told them not to tell anybody. And what did the friends do but publish it after he died. That is fantastic for us because now we have all his writings. Brother Lawrence had an idea called “Practicing the Presence of God” where in all things you are doing you imagine God there with you. What is it like while God is there with you while you are driving the car? It’s a simple thing. It doesn’t add too much to what you are already doing. But let God be there with you and engage in relationship building. Brother Lawrence was the monastery cobbler and the cook, two jobs he absolutely hated. But he said it didn’t matter because God was with him. God made it interesting as he did all the boring tasks. So spend some time with God, not just now but throughout the week.
The second thing you need for a friendship is affection, care. You have to be interested in the person. Dare I say you need to love them, as Jesus talks about. He is connecting friendship and love because they are critical to each other. We need to care about the other person or it’s not really a friendship. One of the best things you can do for a friendship is to ask the person, how are you doing? And then listen to them actively. Not listening and thinking of what you are going to say next, but really listening to what they are saying. Support them if they need support. The same is true with our friendship with God, focusing on love. Telling God that we love Him, and looking for all the ways that God is showing His love for us. Our wonderful opening hymn this morning talks about all the gifts that God rains down on us, all signs of God’s love for us. The practice of gratitude, being able to name all the wonderful things that God is doing for us, draws us closer to God. It helps us build our friendship. Showing up and loving are what friendships are about, either with each other, or with God. So show up to each other and show up to God. Love each other, and love God.
So, my friends, I hope you will do that this week. I hope you will reach out to a friend that you have, maybe someone you have not spoken with in a while, and connect with them. Show them you love them by your interest in what they are doing. And show up to God. Have a conversation with God. Remind God that you love Him, and look for all the ways that God loves you, without reservation, without question. God loves you.
AMEN.
God loves you. God loves you, without question, without reservation. God loves you. You already know that because we preach that all the time here at St. Mary’s. We tell you that God loves you a lot. It’s usually how we end sermons, but today we are starting there.
God loves you. It is a consistent message in scripture. This reality of God’s love is for you, for me, for us, for all of humanity, for all of creation. God’s love is proclaimed time and again throughout Scripture, from the beginning in the Torah, through the Prophets and the Psalms, the Gospel, the Epistles. It is repeated time and again, sometimes explicitly, sometimes it is more implicit, but it is there over and over again.
You might think of some of those explicit moments, like in the Torah when it says God’s covenant with God’s people is a covenant of loving kindness. Or you might think about the Prophets when Isaiah and Jeremiah and several of the minor Prophets say that God’s love is everlasting. It is eternal. The Psalms are full of references of God’s abounding love for humanity and all of creation. In the Gospels there are so many good examples, but what better one than John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. My favorite comes from Paul in Romans Chapter 8, where he asks the question, what can separate us from the love of God? And the answer is, nothing. Can anything separate us from the love of God? No. For I am convinced that neither life nor death nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth or depth or anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I am an Episcopalian. I don’t memorize scripture, but I know this one.
There are other wonderful implicit stories of God’s love. All the stories of Jesus healing people are about love. Or his parables, like the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which is really the parable of the forgiving father who forgives before he is even asked. Think of the great stories about Ruth and Esther and Jonah. Think of the story of Moses and Miriam and the liberation of God’s people from their enslavement in Egypt. Think about the stories of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham. Think about the story of Joseph. Think about the creation story. It doesn’t say anything specific about love, but it is all about love. As God makes the world, each and every day he looks it over and says, it is good, it is good, it is very good. My favorite retelling of the Creation Story is the one that Desmond Tutu offers in a children’s Bible he put together. It says God’s love bubbled up and bubbled over into creation. God’s love cannot be contained, and that love is so enormous that it bubbled up and bubbled over into all that we see, all that we know, all that we experience, the love of God embodied in creation through God’s loving act.
God loves you. And that is the message that the author of 1st John knows as he puts it in an epistle to send to a community that is having some struggles. But John doesn’t just say that God loves you. He takes it one step further. He says not only does God love you, but God is love. Love is not just a verb, it is not just a feeling that God has for things, it is not just the actions that God takes that show love. God is love. God, in God’s very being, doesn’t just love. God is love. God’s identity is love, so God can do no other. The reason that God loves you without question or reservation is not because you did something that makes you loveable. God loves you because God’s love is at the core of God’s identity. God can do nothing but love. That love will not go away. There’s nothing you did to earn it, so there is nothing you can do to lose it.
God loves you, but the author of John takes is one step further. God is love, and that means you need to love as well. If you claim to know anything about God, that means you know that we have a God who is love. And it you claim to want to live your life in accordance with God, who is love, then you will love as well. Any form of religiosity that is filled with hate is not the way of God. Because the way of God is the way of love because God is love. Therefore you need to love as well. I think this goes back to the creation story, because it said that when God made you, God made humanity, we were made in the image of God. And if we have a God who is love, that means that you have been imprinted with the image of love. Deep down inside of you, your identity is one of love as well. To be true to who you are, to be true to what you were made to be, means that you have to love, because you were made in God’s image.
It's a lovely idea, isn’t it? And yet when we look around the world, it is not always loving. There are a lot of places where love is not clear or obvious, where God’s love does not seem to be shining. There is the thing we call sin, greed, selfishness that get in the way of that love. It doesn’t mean that love is not there, it means that it is hard to see. Sometimes it is hard to love people who are not so loveable. It can be really challenging.
In the Gospel today Jesus gives us a way forward when he offers us this beautiful and profound image of the vineyard. God the Father is the vine keeper, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. The branches are meant to produce fruit. Not grapes, but the fruit of love. I think today’s Gospel reading is cut a little bit short, because right after this Jesus goes into a great dissertation about the need to love. When he is talking about this fruit, he is talking about the fruit of love, that we are meant to produce love. What Jesus says is that just like in a real vine, you need to do a little bit of pruning. To prune away those rougher edges, like that selfishness or that greediness so that we can put the energy into love.
That’s why pruning works, because a plant has all kinds of energy coming into it and putting it everywhere, wasting it on things that are not producing fruit. So when you prune the bits that are wasting energy, then the fruit gets more of the energy and can grow bigger and better and more nutritious and help nourish people better. Jesus is saying that there are bits in all of our lives that can use a little bit of pruning so the fruit of love can be bigger, the crop can be more, that we can nourish our world with that love a little bit better.
So, my friends, I encourage you to take some time this week to reflect on love. God’s love, on how God is love, how you were made in His image, imprinted with love on your very soul, that in your identity is love as well. And then ask yourself the very hard question, what little bits need to be pruned so that I can produce a little more love in this world. If we do that, 1st John says, if all of us who follow Jesus tend to that garden and work on making this world a little more loving, we can show God to people. Because every time we show love we show God. Every time we put a little more love in this world, we help nourish this world on love. Maybe we can tip the balance so people can look at this world and say it is a world full of love, it is a world full of the love of God everywhere. Maybe it will help this world become more aligned with God’s dream, God’s vision, of love.
AMEN
What a week it has been for the Disciples. It began with them watching as Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding the donkey, going through the city gates with the crowds cheering him on, exuberantly welcoming him as their Messiah as they cried out, “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And then within a matter of days, everything was flipped upside down, turned inside out as they watched Jesus tragically exiting that city, carrying his cross back through the gates. This time the crowd was jeering him, taunting him, mocking him, crying out, “crucify him!” Jesus went to Golgotha, and there he was murdered by the state in collaboration with the religious authorities, a combination that doesn’t turn out all that well. And there He died.
For the Disciples, it is not just Jesus’s body that was nailed to that cross. It was also their expectations and their dreams that were crucified with him. It was not just Jesus’s body that was laid in the tomb, it was also their very hope. It is in the wake of that disorienting trauma that we find ourselves this morning in our Gospel reading. Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene goes down to the tomb, and there she discovers that the tomb is empty. She and the other Disciples didn’t know what to make of this at the time, but it does not take them very long to figure out that this is good news. This is good news, indeed, for Christ is risen. Jesus has been raised from the dead, showing them that death does not get the final word, God does. Hatred does not get the final word, love does. Despair does not get the final word, hope does.
Over the coming months and years, and down through the generations, other followers of Christ have discovered over centuries and millennia that what happened on that first Easter morning was not an historic anomaly. It was a present reality. For St. Paul says, Christ’s resurrection was the first fruits of those who have died, the first fruits of that which was to come. The resurrection is not just a thing of the past, but it is a way of life. God is working in this world, bringing life out of death, love out of hate, hope out of despair.
We sang in the opening hymn, Jesus Christ is risen today. Not Jesus Christ was risen two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ is risen, present tense. Christ is risen in your life in this very moment. Jesus Christ is risen today. Death still does not get the final word. In all the pain and all the suffering and all the darkness and all the death and all the despair of this world, this truth still rings out: Jesus Christ is risen today.
God is still showing us this truth and inviting us to participate in it, to become one with Jesus in the resurrection.
Many years ago I went to Jerusalem for the first time, the first of three pilgrimages there. I met an Anglican Episcopalian priest who spoke to our group about all the challenges that he and other Palestinian Christians face in the Holy Land. At the end of the lecture, which was rather despairing, I asked him, how do you find hope in the midst of all this? And he said, we live in the city of the empty tomb.
The tomb is still empty, my friends. Death and darkness and despair are still trying to cry out, but Jesus Christ is still risen, the tomb is still empty, and we still have hope of a still more better way, the way of love, the way of life.
Jesus Christ is risen today.
AMEN
Is there anyone who has not at one time or another asked a young person what they want to be when they grow up? Zack’s responses beginning at about age three included among other things: truck driver, heavy equipment operator, professional skate boarder, crabber on the Bering Sea, professional basketball player, and by age 12, a teacher and coach. Happily that’s the one that stuck. I honestly don’t know what my responses might have been early on, though I have vague memories from when I was a little girl of imagining myself as a doctor. However, I vividly remember the moment in eighth grade when someone asked me what I wanted to be and I instantly responded, I’m going to be a chemistry teacher. How did I know that? I hadn't even taken chemistry. I can only attribute that answer to the fact that I had spent years watching Mr. Wizard on television. Indeed, as a chemistry teacher at Sheldon I had the opportunity, along with everyone else in the science department, to attend the National Science Teachers” Convention when it was held in Seattle. One of the featured speakers was Don Herbert - Mr. Wizard. There were hundreds of us in the huge hall where he spoke, and at one point he asked how many of us had watched Mr. Wizard. Easily 80% of the hands went up. I have no idea if he set out to do so, but Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard, clearly shaped an entire generation of science teachers. So was I called by Mr. Wizard to be a chemistry teacher? Was Zack called by one or more of his teachers to become one himself? What exactly does it mean to be called?
Our Old Testament reading this morning recounts one of the most well known stories of call in the Bible. A young boy hears a voice calling his name in the night. Thinking it’s Eli, the person under whom he was serving God, Samuel went to Eli and said here I am for you called me, to which Eli said no I didn’t. Go back to bed. This happened three times, at which point Eli realized what was happening, that God was calling Samuel, so he instructed Samuel to respond, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Now not very many of us have had the experience of hearing an unknown voice calling our name in the night. Or maybe we have. You’ve heard me preach and write multiple times about the fact that I know God speaks to me in my dreams. That’s only one possibility. My dad felt called to the priesthood at an early age, but then had a change of heart and decided to go into business. However, during his time in the navy during World War II he had lots of time while at sea, especially I suspect when he was alone on watch during the night, to listen to that still small voice that over time some of us come to recognize as the voice of God. He came home from the war having decided to resign from the Sun Oil Company in order to go to seminary.
While sometimes it can seem as though God has called us directly, as often as not God speaks through those around us, as in the Gospel reading this morning in the conversation between Philip and Nathaniel. And as often as not, we’re initially rather skeptical of what someone suggests we ought to do. Nathaniel certainly was. Jesus of Nazareth?!? Are you kidding me? Has anything good every come out of Nazareth? For his part, Philip didn’t try to browbeat Nathaniel into doing anything. He simply responded, Come and see. Nathaniel did, and his life was never the same again.
Nowadays it seems as though we most often speak of someone being called when it refers to ordained ministry. However, God calls people to all sorts of ministries that don’t involve ordination. Moreover call doesn’t only refer to being called to one’s life’s work. There are plenty of people who become exactly what they believe they were meant to be, have very successful and fulfilling careers performing their chosen line of work, but at the same time feel called to do something more, something besides their “day job” so to speak, because they see a need that they believe they can meet. Consider for example, Lynn and Dave Frohnmayer. In 1983 their two daughters Kirsten, then ten and Katie four, were diagnosed with Fanconi anemia, a rare and life-threatening recessive genetic illness. Two years after they received that news Lynn and Dave founded an FA Family Support Group to help share disease and treatment information with other families afflicted by the same illness. Their third daughter, Amy, born two years after that in 1987, also inherited the disease. So two years following Amy’s birth they founded the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund. It was soon after that, I believe, that Dave Frohnmayer spoke at Sheldon. I have no idea what his topic was, but at some point I know he mentioned the research fund and how passionate he and Lynn were about the research happening because of it. Later, over lunch in the science office, the members of our department decided we wanted to contribute to the fund, and did so. I’ve been giving annually ever since. I was terribly sad when Katie died in 1991 at age 12, followed by Kirsten in 1997 at 24. At the same time I’ve been extremely impressed over the years with the progress that has been made in treating this illness, leading to longer and longer lives for those afflicted with it. Indeed Amy, the youngest Frohnmayer daughter, outlived her father, who died suddenly in 2015, living herself until 2016 when she died at age 29.
Today, eight years after losing her last daughter, Lynn Frohnmayer continues to be actively involved with the organization that she and Dave founded. For years I’ve received a hand written message from her on the thank you slash tax donation letter I receive in response to my donations. Bear in mind I’m not a major donor, so I’ve found it amazing over the years that Lynn would take the time to do that. Now I should mention there wasn’t such a note this year, a little card with the letter explained, because while playing soccer on cement last summer, at age 81, this is clearly my kind of woman! Lynn fell and dislocated bones in her hand, and hasn’t yet regained the ability to write legibly. While I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Lynn Frohnmayer, I feel in a way like I know her. Her cause has become my cause, which I believe is often how call works. When we’re passionate about something, our enthusiasm can be contagious, directly or indirectly inviting others to come and see. Very few of us ever manage to do anything on the scale of founding something like the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund. That doesn’t mean that what we’re doing with our lives is unimportant, nor does it mean we can ignore what is at once an opportunity and a responsibility to share with others the gifts God has given us when such an opportunity arises.
The paradox of saying yes to God is that it can be at once deeply fulfilling and utterly terrifying. Think of poor Samuel who was faced with sharing some really bad news with Eli first thing the next morning, before he had had a chance to even begin to internalize what it meant that God had spoken to him. But God was with him that first morning, and throughout his life. I truly believe if we are responding to a call from God, then God will help us do what needs to be done. I remember well the summer of 2009 when I was struggling to lead the Standing Committee, who was in turn leading the diocese, because we were without a diocesan bishop. +Neff Powell was in town visiting at the time, and when I said something about my self doubts at being able to handle everything I was faced with managing +Neff replied that sometimes God calls those who are equipped, and sometimes God equips those who are called. Either way, God’s will gets done.
Beyond being frightening, saying yes to God can also be wildly inconvenient, if not utterly life changing. The men whom Jesus called to follow him gave up everything, their homes, their families, their livelihoods in order to take off with a man who appeared to be at the outset a pretty ordinary person. Yet somehow they knew that this was not an ordinary person, and they knew they were meant to follow him. My dad gave up a promising career in business in order to go to seminary, and he was a very lucky man that my mom stuck with him when he did so because I absolutely do not believe she would have married him had she known beforehand that he wanted to be a priest. The last thing on earth my mother wanted to be was the rector’s wife. But that’s part of who she was indirectly called to be, and in her own way she filled the role well.
So how do we know that the call we’re responding to is from God? There are a lot of voices out there after all, calling us to follow them. It can seem at times like there are a lot of voices in here calling us as well. I believe that if a call is truly from God, it will draw us outside ourselves, it will make us better people because it will deepen our understanding of who and whose we are as we respond to that call. My father taught me that when we’re baptized each of us is set aside to be a saint. That doesn’t mean we’re going to show up in a stained glass window or have a church named for us. It means we’ve become one of the countless people down through time who have been committed by virtue of the promises we made, or that were made on our behalf, to following Jesus, to being part of the Jesus movement. We are people committed to looking for ways we can make a difference in the lives of those around us. That could be something as simple as smiling at someone we pass on the street. It could be as all encompassing as choosing a profession, a vocation that allows us to serve others throughout our lives. Saying Yes to God means responding as we will sing [as we sang] during the offertory, Here I am, Lord. It is I, Lord. I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart. Amen.
Let us pray: May this be in the name of our loving Creator God, the fully human/divine Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at work in us and around us. Amen.
Merry Christmas to you all! We did it! We’re here! What a lovely night, what a special occasion to come together with family and friends to hear the story told once again, to listen to the readings from scripture and sing the Christmas carols. Welcome, welcome, one and all. It is a joy to be together with you this night, THE NIGHT, the night when we recognize and remember the coming into the world of a little baby born in Bethlehem. The angels brought the good news to shepherds watching over their flocks in the field by night, and this good news echoes throughout time to us on this night.
“Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people (for ALL the people!): to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in the manger.”
Tonight we come together to hear this Good News again. Tonight we come together in church, out of the cold and the darkness of our lives and our world to be reminded that we need not fear. Tonight we come together to hear the good news of great joy for ALL the people.
And this is a strange story, isn’t it? It doesn’t follow the normal plot lines we expect. In fact, this story of GOD coming down to earth is pretty absurd. THE MOST POWERFUL, Creator of ALL things, chose to enter in and relate with creation in the form of a helpless baby. What? Not even the best of babies, the most highly regarded, well known baby. No. God chose to come into our world and be revealed to us with the help of an unwed teenage mother from a tiny, backwater town. Mary didn’t give birth to Jesus in stately palace. Nope. There was no room in the inn, so they were outside in the barn with the animals. In the elements, with the sounds and smells of livestock. Little baby Jesus was wrapped up in strips of torn cloth, no cute onesie, hat, and don’t scratch-your-face mittens for him. The bed of God was the feeding trough. Manger, from the French, to eat, we pronounce MAINGER, this is where the all-powerful creator of everything that was and is and will be was first tenderly laid down. Absurd, right? This strange story, this paradox and reversal, this entry into our world is a sign for us. It is a sign of how the Creator of the Universe works and of how God desires to be in relationship with us.
It is EXACTLY in our imperfect, powerless, utter dependency, that God longs to know us, to care for us and to love us. Why else would God become incarnate, take on flesh, and spend time among us in the mysterious human AND divine person of Jesus if not to perfectly understand and validate our human existence? The mystery of the incarnation, the birth of the baby Jesus that we celebrate this night is SO much bigger than just the beginnings of Jesus of Nazareth’s life here on earth. Through God’s choice to enter into our world and relate to it in all of its raw, visceral, physical, emotional forms, we receive the assurance that God is indeed pleased to live and dwell among us AS one of us.
In the book of Genesis, the creation story repeats, again and again, God’s pronouncement of the goodness of creation seven times: and it was good, and it was good, and it was good, and it was good, and speaking of humanity, it was VERY good. God is good. What God created and creates out of God’s goodness is good. God came at Christmas time to affirm and to literally show us the goodness that is in our DNA. God, in Jesus, embraces every aspect of our physical, human lives. Every created thing is imbued with the goodness of its Creator God. What a difference it can make to our lives, our own self-image AND the way we view others, if we can wrap our minds around this starting point of original goodness, original blessing. ALL of us, mind, spirit, AND body.
This is the sign that a little baby, nine months nourished in Mary’s uterus, making the strenuous journey through the birthing canal, wrapped in cloth, laying in a food trough, surrounded by animals, nighty sky, wind, and stars, shows us.
Father Richard Rohr, mystic contemplative and author Franciscan explains Saint Francis of Assisi’s realization of the the message of the incarnation:
“Francis realized that since God had become flesh—taken on materiality, physicality, humanity—then we didn’t have to wait for Good Friday and Easter to “solve the problem” of human sin: the problem was solved from the beginning. It makes sense that Christmas became the great celebratory feast of Christians because it basically says that it’s good to be human, it's good to be on this earth, it’s good to have a body, it’s good to have emotions. We don’t need to be ashamed of any of it! God loves matter and physicality! (taken from: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/celebrating-incarnation/)
The message and celebration of Christmas time is the Good News that we, all of us humans, are good in ALL of our humanity, in all of who we are, EXACTLY who and how God created us to be. In all of our amazing diversity, reflecting the limitless facets of our Creator.
God came to earth as a baby 2000+ years ago and God continues to come to us through all the ways that our physicality, and the materiality of our created world show us how good, lovely, and lovable it all is! In the baby Jesus, God incarnate, we see the coexistence of divinity and humanity within each of us connecting us to each other, to our world and to our loving God. This is the Good News; this is the sign for all the world to see. God in Jesus, coming to live as one of us drawing us closer to our Creator. God is good. You are good. Grow in love for yourself, for each other, and for our world. This is the message of Christmas, the sign of the incarnation, our loving God showing us who we are and whose we are. Each and every one of us is beloved of God, in each and every way we were created to be on this earth. Oh what a night, a holy night, a perfectly human divine night! Merry Christmas to you all!
Amen.
Let us pray: Oremos. Come Holy Spirit, come. ¡Ven Espiritu Santo, ven! Speak to us. ¡Háblanos! Assure us of your love, answer our questions, affirm our doubts. Asegúrenos de tu amor. Responda a nuestras preguntas, afirme nuestras dudas. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Happy 4th Sunday of Advent to you! ¡Feliz cuarto domingo de Adviento a ustedes! I read that that this happens once every seven years. Fourth Sunday of Advent on Christmas Eve. Acabo de aprender que esto ocurre cada siete años. El curato domingo de adviento Y día de Nochebuena. Así que, ya CASI estamos a Navidad, ¡pero todavía no! So we are ALMOST to Christmas, but not quite there yet!
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is the story of the annunciation. The angel Gabriel coming to Mary to bring this wildly extraordinary, life-changing news.
“Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you.” Understandably, Mary was “quite perplexed” and wondered what sort of greeting this was. Well, YES, when the Archangel Gabriel comes to you in full splendor and dazzling raiment, you are bound to be quite perplexed. I would even say, awestruck, amazed, dazed, and confused. Notice the first proclamation. “Greetings favored one. God is with you.” Mary has found favor with God. God is with her. What a lovely and powerful proclamation and affirmation for Mary to hear. God sees you. God knows you. God loves you and is WITH you.
Nuestro evangelio de hoy día es la historia de la anunciación del ángel Gabriel a la virgen María. Este mensaje completamente extraordinario que va a cambiar la vida de esta adolescente para siempre. “¡Salve, llena de gracia! El Señor está contigo.” Claro que María “se sorprendió de estas palabras” y “se preguntaba de que significaría aquel saludo.” Bueno, cuando viene el Arcángel Gabriel en todo esplendor y vestimenta brillante es seguro que uno se sorprende. Yo diría que María estaba deslumbrada, asombrada, aturdida, y confundida. Mira lo que proclama el ángel. “¡Salve, llena de gracia! El Señor está contigo.” María ha recibido toda la gracia de Dios. El Señor está con ella. Que proclamación tan hermosa y poderosa. Dios te vea. Dios te conoce. Dios te ama y ESTÁ contigo.
After the proclamation of the favor and presence of God, Gabriel brings this life-shattering news. Mary, the teenage virgin, will conceive and bear a son. Not just any son, but the Son of the Most High who will inherit the throne of David and reign over the house of Jacob forever in an everlasting kingdom. Mary has questions, lots of questions. How can this be? It’s too much, beyond imagining. Mary wonders. Mary is unsure. Mary doubts. Mary needs more information. JUST LIKE US, RIGHT? The angel Gabriel doesn’t dismiss her doubts, but takes the time to explain and answer her questions. In fact, Gabriel goes so far as to provide a very real connection, the wisdom and experience of an aunt, Elizabeth,
to guide and accompany her in this amazing experience. Nothing will be impossible with God! Then Mary said. THEN, then she leapt out in faith, OK, I think I understand a bit better. I’ll definitely go see my aunt to talk about all this together. With your loving assurance, with your presence, if YOU are with me, and my family is with me: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Después de esta proclamación de la gracia y presencia de Dios, Gabriel lleva este mensaje que cambiará la vida de María en todo sentido. “Ahora vas a quedar encinta: tendrás un hijo…no como otros hijos, lo llamará Hijo de Dios Altísimo, y Dios lo hará Rey como su antepasado David, para que reine por siempre sobre el pueblo de Jacob y su reino no tendrá fin.” Claro que María tiene preguntas, muchas preguntas. ¿Cómo podrá suceder esto? Eso es demasiado. No lo puedo imaginar. María se pregunta. María no es segura. Tiene dudas. Necesita mas información.
IGUAL COMO NOSOTROS, ¿NO? El ángel Gabriel no descarta sus preguntas y dudas, pero tomo el tiempo para explicar y responder. Más que esto, Gabriel le da una conexión humana. La sabiduría y experiencia de su tía Isabel para guiar y acompañarla por esta experiencia tan extraordinaria. Para Dios, no hay nada imposible. Entonces María dijo. ENTONCES, pudo responder en fe, creo que entiendo un poco mejor, claro que voy a visitar a mi tía y pedir su consejo.
Con tu gracia, con tu amor y presencia, si TÚ O Señor estás conmigo y mi familia también: “Yo soy esclava del Señor; que Dios haga conmigo como me has dicho.”
The story of the annunciation is a story of an amazing young woman who experiences the grace and loving presence of God. It is also the story of a person just like you and me, who doubts, and who questions. In Mary we see that doubts are good, normal and perfectly OK. In the angel Gabriel speaking God’s message, we see that our good and loving God hears our questions, honors them, and is willing to answer them to provide ways for us to grow our faith and to grow our relationship with God because OF and thanks TO, our questions. And so, my siblings in Christ, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, know that our doubts and uncertainties are the very means by which we are brought closer to God. Through our wonderings and wanderings TOGETHER, we grow closer as we seek. And together, in our doubts with Mary, we can say to God, “Here am I. Take me as I am. I am willing to get to know you better Lord. Let it be done to me according to your loving providence.” Amen.
La historia de la anunciación es historia de una joven extraordinaria quien experimenta la gracia y amorosa presencia de Dios. También es historia de una persona como nosotros, una persona con dudas y preguntas. En María vemos que las dudas y preguntas de fe son buenas y normales. En el mensaje del ángel Gabriel hablando por Dios, vemos que nuestro buen Dios de amor oye nuestras preguntas, las honra, y nos ayuda a buscar respuestas como manera de crecer nuestra fe. Entonces, mis hermanos y hermanas en Cristo, este cuarto domingo de Adviento, sepan que nuestras dudas, preguntas, e incertidumbres nos ayudan a juntarnos a Dios. Mientras nos preguntamos y caminamos juntos, nos acercamos en nuestra búsqueda. Juntos en nuestras dudas, con María, virgen y Madre de Dios, podemos decir a Dios: “Yo soy esclava del Señor; que Dios haga conmigo como me has dicho.” Amén.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, inhabit these words, may they bring comfort to your people as we await the coming of your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Comfort, O comfort my people. YES please! What a time, what a need for comfort we all have in our world today. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, the prophet Isaiah says. Speak tenderly to these United States and to this world we live in as we approach the new year, two thousand twenty-four. Cry to her that her time of suffering, pain, and violence have been served, the penalty paid, enough. Enough bad news, devastation and despair. We’ve already had a double portion. Into this darkness and pain a voice cries out:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. In the fierce and ferocious times of our lives, our own wilderness wandering, we are to prepare, to get ready, to stay awake, and to watch for the comings of Christ into our lives.
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Lay out a direct path, no swerving or meandering, a direct line for Christ to come to us. An amazing road crew, engineers and heavy machinery cutting a swath through the desert, that arid, dry and dangerous stretch will soon be easily crossed. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Those low times, those hard times will be brought up, those high mountain passes, those heights so hard to attain,
will be brought down to our level, no more struggle to huff and puff and slowly make our way up. Where once we had to be so careful, painstakingly placing each foot, now we can walk without thought on even ground. Those rough spots will be leveled out, smooth hiking. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together. God’s loving light and grace will be evident, shining brightly, an enormous beacon for ALL people to experience and approach together, united. This is what God, the Creator of the universe has said, and so it will be. Amen.
These are not the words, vision, and promise of men. No. Compared to God people are just like flowers or grass that withers and fades and is gone. These words of God are everlasting and they will never fade, indelible. Know this and rejoice. This is Good News! Get you up to a high mountain, lift up your voice with strength, be heralds of good tidings, do not fear; say to the cities of the world:
“Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with mighty arms that rule. And notice how this mighty God rules. Yes, God is all powerful, AND… God cares for us, God feeds us, like a shepherd cares for their flock; and God gathers the lambs and carries them in God’s bosom, and gently leads the mother sheep.
What lovely images of the powerful, almighty God AND the loving, nurturing, God who gathers us up in protecting arms, holding us close, feeding, and gently leading us.
These words of the prophet Isaiah were words of comfort for the people of Israel who had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Defeated in battle, they became an occupied nation, their holy temple desecrated and destroyed, forced to leave everything and everyone they had known and loved, exiled. Isaiah’s words for them are words of hope, words of God’s return. Words inviting them to prepare a highway for the Lord. Words promising them a path a path home, a path to peace, and to restoration. God will bring justice directly to them on a highway. Lifting up the low, bringing down the high, leveling the playing field, smoothing out the rough places. Then, then, God’s glory will be revealed and everyone, everyone, all together will see it and know. And Zion and Jerusalem are called to be heralds, to announce this good news to the cities of Judah and to all. The Mighty God is coming in power and in gentle, loving care.
This ancient message of hope for Israel reverberates into our time this Advent season. Just as it was a connecting message for Mark’s Gospel and the suffering people of his time, so it is for us and the suffering that we face.
Richard Ward, professor of preaching, connects this thread and charges the church with sharing this message of hope, he says:
Advent is a time to hear the promises spoken or sung to the community of faith once again and then sit with them through the season. It is also a time for that community to find its own voice, overcome its objections, and speak words of comfort and assurance to anyone who feels separated or abandoned by God, that God will arrive and will come in gentle power. (Ward, Richard F., Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 1, p. 31).
From Isaiah, to Mark, to John the Baptizer, to the first coming of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, to this Advent season. We watch, and wait, and prepare. For surely our powerfully good and loving God is coming again. And again. And again.
Comfort, comfort your people. Speak tenderly to your beloveds, O God. In the wilderness of our lives, help us prepare the way for your coming in glory for all the world to see. Come Lord Jesus, come!
Amen.
Let us pray: May these words be your words, this message your message, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Are we there yet? How much longer? Will we EVER get there? I’m SO ready to be home already! I imagine you’ve heard these words, or uttered them in exasperation yourself, plenty of times. We want to be there, to arrive. And we especially want to know how long the wait is. Waiting is the worst. Especially when you have no idea how long it will be.
Today’s parable is all about waiting. Here, towards the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has been talking about the Kingdom, or as I prefer, the KINdom of heaven. That realization of God’s dream for us. The return of Jesus. The grand coming together. The healing, reconciling, saturating power of God’s love realized in our world. Jesus’ disciples and those who are gathering to listen to his teachings, all want to know, how much longer? When will this be, this end of the age, this coming of the Son of Man, this kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven? And so, Jesus answers them with this parable about a wedding feast.
In Jesus’ time, wedding guests would gather at the home of the bride to be entertained while everyone waited for the groom to arrive. When the bridegroom was close, the bridesmaids and the guests would go out to greet him. And with their lamps lit, they would form a procession to the groom’s house for the ceremony and the multiple day feast! The job of the bridesmaids was to greet the groom and light the path to the wedding location. They needed to be ready and alert, their lamps filled with oil, their wicks trimmed.
In this parable, for some unknown reason, the bridegroom is late, very late, and everyone ends up falling asleep, their lamps burning through plenty of oil while they snoozed. Then, suddenly, a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then they got up and trimmed their lamps. But only those who had brought extra oil could refill their lamps. And when they asked the others to share, they replied, ‘No! there won’t be enough for you and for us; go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And so, off they went. But while they were away the bridegroom arrived, and they processed to the wedding banquet, closing the gate and doors behind them. Finally, the other bridesmaids showed up, but were refused at the door. Sorry, the ceremony’s already started, no admittance after the show has begun. Bummer. They are out and the others are in.
Hmm. Now what does all this mean for us, here and now, today. Well, at the end of the parable Jesus tells us: “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” We don’t know how long we’ll have to wait to see God’s dream for our world come to fruition. These things are beyond us. We can’t possibly figure out when Jesus will return again in glory. But…what we can do, is figure out how to wait expectantly and hopefully. John Buchanan, in his commentary puts it well: “The point is living expectantly. Christian hope rests on trust that the God who created the world will continue to love the world with gentle providence, will continue the process of creation until the project is complete, and will continue to redeem and save the world by coming into it with love and grace in Jesus Christ” (Buchanan, John M., in “Feasting on the Word” Year A, Vol. 4, p. 286).
And so we do our best to wait in hope, reminding ourselves and one another of the character of our good and loving God. Working to place our trust in God’s grace, forgiveness, and compassion. And we do our best to prepare and make the best of the time we have to wait. We do our best to be wise and to bring along extra oil. In this parable, the bridegroom is Jesus and the wedding feast is his coming again in glory at the end of time. The bridesmaids are all of us. And the oil, the oil can be considered our reserves of faith, our experiences growing and learning and coming closer to our loving God. While we do share some of these moments together, they are also very personal as well, our own understanding of the divine throughout our life’s experiences. As such, they can’t be shared in the way that I can’t just simply pass on my faith to you. I can try. And I can certainly tell you all about it. But my faith can’t be your faith, my experiences with the divine your experiences with the divine. You’ll have to go and search out that oil for yourself. And the time for doing that building, that searching, and that growing is now! Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. It might be too late. You might show up after the show’s already started! There are some things with expiration dates, like apologizing to a good friend, or sharing your true feelings with someone you love, or showing up to care for someone who really needs you now. These opportunities can expire. Don’t wait.
Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus told the crowds: “…Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). We wait expectantly with hope and we light the way for others by sharing God’s love through works of mercy and caring. In this way we light the path, forming the procession with our own lamps shining God’s love through how we live. In this way we not only keep our own oil stock of faith full, but we also work to participate in the in-breaking, creation, and realization of God’s dream. By preparing, sharing, and shining now, we shine God’s light onto the paths of others as we wait in hopeful expectation for the great wedding banquet. Keep awake! Keep your oil stocked up and build up reserves of faith. Shine your light, God’s reflection of love showing through you. And in so doing we will work together to create the KINdom of God here and now. And then, finally, finally, we will be there.
Amen.
This past week was Halloween, and it was so much fun to see folks in their costumes. The kids, of course, getting dropped off at school, their costume parades, trick or treating in the evening. But it wasn’t just kids. I saw a lot of adults wearing costumes as well. I went to a doctor’s office, and the entire staff was dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I bet you can guess which character the doctor was. I went to the grocery store and I was checked out by a pirate.
Some of the people’s costumes had masks, although some didn’t. It got me thinking about the purpose of a mask. One purpose of a mask is to conceal. You might think about the masquerade ball in “Romeo and Juliet” that allowed them to conceal their identities so they could get close to each other and move that romance forward in a way their families would not have allowed. You might think about the great poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, or the reworking of it by Maya Angelou in which they talk about a smile as a mask. Maya Angelou, in her reworking of it, said that she was inspired when she saw a woman on a bus, smiling. And she knew that the smile was a mask hiding all kinds of pain and suffering and little indignities that she had to go through. She goes on to talk about the mask that she and her people have been wearing for centuries, through enslavement, Jim Crow, discrimination, oppression, and how they have to wear the mask that conceals in order to survive.
Masks, paradoxically, also can reveal. Sometimes people have to put a mask on to be their true selves. I don’t have a good, high literary reference for this, so I am going to go to superheroes, go to the comics. Those superheroes put masks on so they can be their true selves, because otherwise people would not be willing to accept them. It isn’t just the superheroes who wear them. The villains sometimes have to wear a mask, and their true self is revealed, how awful and vicious they are.
I also think of the revealing mask of the anonymity of the internet. That mask has certainly helped a lot of people reveal their true selves, for good and for bad. Masks can reveal who we truly are.
Another thing a mask can do is transform. There is a short story written in the late 20th century called “The Happy Hypocrite.” It is about a man who is no good. He is a charlatan. The narrator says the only vice he does not have is smoking. He does every thing else wrong. He is a terrible man. Cupid strikes him and he falls in love with a woman who is good and righteous and pure and pious. He proposes marriage to her, and she turns him down because she will only marry a saint. He is devastated. On the way home he walks past a mask shop. He goes in and shares his situation with the mask maker, and the mask maker makes him a mask of a saint to wear. Wearing the mask, as the story goes on, he does all kinds of wonderful, good, saintly things. She falls in love with him and they get married. About a month after their wedding, the antagonist, who has been present throughout the story but I skipped that part for brevity in the sermon, comes back. They get into a scuffle, the mask is removed, and we discover the man looks exactly the same. He has been transformed over the time he was wearing the mask. That’s the “fake it till you make it” approach to life.
Masks can conceal, masks can reveal, and masks can transform. Today we are celebrating the Feast of All Saints when we remember all the saints. When we think about the saints, we normally think about them as amazing super Christians, that they are extra righteous and good and perfect. And I promise you they are not. If you read their histories, not their hagiographies, you will discover they are folks just like you and me, with all their quirks and foibles, all of their errors and yes, sins. What makes the saints different, I think, is that the saints have put on the mask of Christ. Sometimes they put that mask in order to conceal some things about themselves. I know we all love St. Francis, but if you read about him, I think he wanted to conceal some things about his life. Sometimes the saints put that mask on to reveal something about themselves. Here I think about the martyrs and how that mask of Christ gave them the strength to do the right thing when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they did the right thing because of that mask of Christ that revealed the strength within them that God gave them.
I think all of the saints put on the mask of Christ and were transformed. Day in and day out, as they put that mask on, they became evermore like Christ. Not perfect, but trying. The saints are there inviting us to put the mask on, too. They are handing you that mask today, inviting you to put it on. Maybe because you need to conceal a few rough edges. Maybe to reveal some inner strength. But in all cases to help you transform evermore into the likeness of Christ, evermore into the likeness of one who was the Incarnation of love in this world. They are inviting you to put that mask on today.
AMEN
Let us pray. Come Holy Spirit, speak to us through these words. Answer our questions and show us your way of love. Amen.
Questions, questions, questions. Throughout Matthew’s Gospel and in our lectionary over the last few Sundays, we’ve heard people asking Jesus questions. Sometimes they are trying to confront his authority, other times they are trying to trick him into saying something that will get him into trouble. Jesus’s answers put the questions back on the askers and point to larger ideas about the nature of God. Today’s Gospel lesson is more of the same with an expert in the law asking Jesus which command is the most important? Which one of the 613 laws should we be really careful to follow?
Throughout the stages of our lives, we all have questions. Which choice should I make? Should I apply for this new job or to that school, or pursue this new relationship, or explore this option or the other? How should I deal with these events in my life, or in the lives of my family and friends? And the BIGGER questions about the meaning of life itself, about God and the divine. How can I find happiness? What is the purpose of my life? What will happen after I die? We too, have questions for Jesus. What Jesus? How Jesus? When Jesus? Why Jesus?
In today’s Gospel Jesus offers THE ANSWER. LOVE.
Those familiar words that we hear at the beginning of each service on Sunday morning: Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and The Prophets.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. AND…love your neighbor as yourself. This is it. This is the summary of all of the 613 laws. This is the answer to all of our of questions. LOVE. In this one answer, Jesus sums up all of the law and all the messages of prophets about how humankind should be in relation with the Divine, with one another, and with all of creation. LOVE. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul. To grow our relationship with love. Love for us from God. Love incarnate, tangible love in the example of Jesus showing us how to act in love as human beings.
To love God with all our heart, soul, and mind requires effort on our part. To love is to know, and to be known. To love is be in relationship. To take interest in the other, to listen, to learn, to spend time together. This, Jesus says, is THE most important thing. This is the answer to our questions about this messy human life we live. Love God. Grow in relationship with the Creator of the Universe, with Love itself. With the God who knows us intimately through the human experience of Jesus. Learn how much you are loved unconditionally by God. Work to understand and accept your ultimate value in God’s eyes. Come to know that you are loved beyond your capacity to understand or even wildly imagine.
Spend time in prayer, communicating with God, sharing your worries and needs, your thanks and praise. Come together to worship, to hear and respond to God’s word, to admit when we have fallen short, to be reminded we are forgiven and loved, and then, come together at the table to receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gather as one body. Recall, experience in our bodies the ultimate love of the cross and the ultimate triumph of love over death in the resurrection.
That is the beauty, the mystery, and the grace-filled Good News that Jesus brings us. And from this growth in learning to love God we are called, called to love as God loves, without reservation, without limit or discrimination.
From this loving relationship flows our own stepping out in love. You shall Love your neighbor as yourself.
Last week in my homily at the 9:30 service I spoke about how we are all made in that good, holy, and loving image of God. Imprinted, stamped like a coin, bearing the image of the divine in our very being. Made in love, by and for love, to grow in relationship with our loving creator and all of creation. We BELONG to God and like Jesus’ call to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, we are called to render unto God what is God’s. That’s us, that’s everything! All that we have, all that we are, belong to God. And we work to return it to God through our loving acts of service and care.
Last week I was invited to present the Spiritual Leader award at Serenity Lane’s annual awards ceremony. In a room filled with people who were sharing God’s love through supporting those battling substance use disorder, the words of one particular young man resonated. He said something like: it’s in that place where what people need to survive and start to thrive, and where the experience and care that others have, come together, it’s there, right there where love is.
Our outreach council presentations and luncheons about people in our community who are making peoples’ lives better, has a great name: Love in Action. Love in Action. This is what Jesus means we he calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Reaching out in love to care for others. To provide for them. To make their lives better. To share God’s love through our own acts of love. To offer dignified care, and genuine presence, especially to those who are unknown and unseen in our communities. When we realize how loved we are, how good and lovely the Creator of all things seen and unseen is, then we respond. We respond to God’s love for us with our love for others. We respond in love. Love in action. Love, love is the answer. Love, love is the way. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Amen.
Our first reading today comes from the Book of Genesis. It is part of the Joseph saga, which is a short novella within the Book of Genesis that takes up a little more than a quarter of the entire book. It is the longest story in Genesis. You may remember the Joseph story from the musical a few decades ago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. It is the story of Joseph, the great grandson of Sarah and Abraham, the grandson of Isaac and Rebekah, and the son of Rachel and Jacob. Joseph is by far Jacob’s favorite son. All the parents here know it is a terrible idea to have favorites, and the story of Jacob is a good example of why that is the case. It creates a lot of animosity among the brothers. Jacob makes it clear that Joseph is the favorite in many ways. One is that amazing technicolor dream coat, or sometimes translated as a coat with very long sleeves, or an ornamental robe. It is essentially a fancy outfit that Jacob only gives to one of his sons. There are other ways that Jacob favors Joseph. For instance, Joseph does not have to work as hard as his brothers. He gets to stay near dad while the other boys have to go out into the field to work. The only job we know that Joseph has is to be sent out by his dad to see what the other brothers are up to. He is sort of a tattletale, which also does not endear him to his brothers.
Along with that, Joseph has a really big ego, which might come from being the favorite, but he thinks he is the center of the world. He has dreams in which all of his brothers are bowing down to him, and when he has that dream he goes and tells his brothers all about it. How do you think that goes over? In one version of the dream, the entire family is bowing down to him, and that really upsets the brothers. One day they decide to kill him. At the last minute they change their minds, and Joseph simply gets sold off into slavery. The brothers take that coat of many colors, rip it up, smear it with animal blood and take it to their dad. They tell him your son, Joseph, was killed by a wild animal. This breaks Jacob’s heart.
Joseph goes off to Egypt, and in order to keep this sermon not too long, we will skip some details. But know that Jacob is falsely accused of a crime and he goes to prison. From there, through a whole series of twists and turns, he becomes second in charge of the entire country. The way that happens is that he is really good at interpreting dreams, or as he likes to put it, God interprets the dream, he tells me, and I tell you. When he is in prison he interprets dreams of a couple of Pharoah’s former employees who were in prison. He interprets that one of them is going to be killed, and the other is going to be spared and will return to his position at the palace. This is what comes to pass. Several years later, Pharoah has some dreams that are very much disturbing him, and he asks his advisors what the dreams mean. None of them know, so Pharoah says go and ask all the wise folks around, but none of them can say what the dream is about. Finally, the one guy in the palace who was in prison with Joseph said, I know somebody who might be able to help. They get Joseph, and he correctly interprets the dream: seven years of plenty are coming, followed by seven years of famine. You need to collect everything extra you can during that time of plenty so that you have enough to get through the famine. Pharoah is so impressed by this that he makes Joseph in charge of this task. He put him as second in charge of the entire country in order to do this task, second only to the Pharoah.
It comes to pass there are seven years of plenty, and Joseph starts collecting extra grain. When those years of plenty are over, he starts giving it back to the people. There is so much they can actually give it to people in other countries who are also experiencing the famine. The famine reaches Jacob and Joseph’s brothers, and they hear that in Egypt they will sell you grain. So Jacob sends almost all of his sons. He keeps one back, his 2nd favorite, and sends the others to go buy the grain.
Again, to keep this sermon not too long, I will not go into the more exciting twists and turns that are Joseph’s revenge story. But towards the end of it, Joseph changes his mind and decides to forgive his brothers. His brothers do not recognize him, so he says, I am Joseph who you sold into slavery. How is dad? There is much weeping, and a wonderful moment when they go and get dad and all their families and go to Egypt, living there on great land. All is well. They are very happy, and then Jacob dies.
This is where our story picks up today. Jacob dies, and the brothers are afraid. They are concerned that the only reason that Joseph did not fulfill that revenge fantasy was because of their dad. Now that he is gone, there is nothing to get in the way of Joseph meting out punishment to his brothers. They go to Joseph and beg him to spare them. They say, dad wouldn’t like this—they still bring in dad to protect them—and Joseph says, do not be afraid. What you intended for evil, God intended for good. All is well. It is a beautiful story of reconciliation.
It is also a story of a clash of two different world views or mindsets, imaginations of how this world should operate. One mindset is the one of the brothers, who are afraid. It is a mindset of punishment, revenge, vengeance, an eye for an eye justice. They know they did wrong, they know they should be punished for it, and are afraid of what that punishment is going to look like. That is their view of how things are probably going to go.
The other mindset is the one that Joseph has, which is the imagination of forgiveness, of mercy, of grace, of reconciliation. I think the brothers’ mindset is probably where most of the world is. A lot of the time, most of us feel that same way, too. The feeling bubbles up inside of us expecting punishment or some type of revenge. Joseph’s mindset is the way of God. We hear it in our Psalm today: He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. This is God’s dream for the world. A dream of grace and mercy, a dream that looks to the future and sees us reconciled to each other and to God.
I don’t think Joseph has always been in the order of forgiveness or reconciliation. I think when he was having his revenge fantasies and creating twists and turns for his brothers, he was in the other order of punishment and vengeance. But somehow he eventually ends up on the side of reconciliation, where God wants us to be.
I think there is a way to read the entire Book of Genesis as a journey to reconciliation. At the end we have this reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers, but before that there was a rupture. This is not the only time ruptures occur in Genesis. Before this, Jacob and Esau had a great rupture and reconciliation. Before that, Abraham and Isaac. I would also argue Abraham and Sarah have a rupture in the binding of Isaac story. I’m not sure there was much reconciliation after that event. In that story, they go up the mountain together, but they do not come down the mountain together. Genesis also has the story of Babel, the story of the flood, the story of the Garden of Eden. There is a lot of rupture and not much reconciliation, except the rainbow in the flood story. It is generally stories of rupture and more rupture before we start getting some reconciliation. The Book of Genesis is the journey of faith to move from that place that is so natural for us, to move to the place of grace and mercy that God desires for this world.
We see Jesus talking about this in the Gospel in the past few weeks, and in all his stories about forgiveness and the need to forgive. We have been hearing Paul talk about it in his Epistle to the Romans. There was a great passage a few weeks ago when he says, do not return evil for evil, but return good for evil, which is like pouring burning coals on their head. It is all about trying to move to that place of grace, of mercy, of forgiveness, that dream that God has for this world.
My friends in Christ, I encourage you to try and walk this journey. When you feel that sense bubbling up inside of you seeking revenge, vengeance, and punishment, try to look towards that Kingdom of God, that Kingdom of grace and mercy. It is not going to be easy. It is not easy, but try and move in that direction. You have heard me say many times that the central message of the Gospel is love. Reconciliation, forgiveness, grace and mercy are all manifestations and embodiments of that very love. Try, try, and try again to walk towards that Kingdom, that dream. Try and walk along the way of love.
AMEN.
In our Gospel today, Jesus is talking with the Disciples about what to do if another member of the church sins against you. The expression, sins against you, is not very clear. Jesus is not being very precise when he says that, and there are all kinds of debates about if this type of sin is relevant here or not. But Jesus is likely using it in a general sense to mean that if someone has wronged you, what do you do about it? Jesus says, first go talk to the person one on one. If that doesn’t work, take a couple of people with you. If that doesn’t work, take it to a bigger circle, and if none of this works, then treat them like a Gentile or a tax collector.
But what does that mean? The standard interpretation is that the Gentiles and tax collectors are outside of the community. So to treat someone like a Gentile or tax collector means to kick somebody out of the community. A Gentile is, by definition, not a part of the group. You have Jews and you have Gentiles, you have us and you have them. Tax collectors were a part of the group, but then they started collaborating with the occupying Roman Empire to oppress the people, so they got kicked out of the group. These are folks that you don’t hang out with, and that you may even shun. There are Christian communities who take this passage from Matthew’s Gospel and use it to engage in practices of excommunication or shunning. After an earlier service, a parishioner came up to me and shared her earlier experience of being publicly excommunicated at her church with a reading of a letter. This is based on a literal understanding of what Matthew is talking about.
My problem with this interpretation is that the world may have been shunning these folks, but Jesus doesn’t. So this interpretation is not in line with what Jesus does with Gentiles and tax collectors. What does Jesus do with these folks? He eats with them. He heals them. He invites them in. He engages with them. He, dare I say, loves them.
What does it mean to treat someone as a Gentile or tax collector if you’re following Jesus and want to do what Jesus does? It doesn’t mean to push somebody away. It means to keep engaging with them in love. Love, that center of the Gospel message: from Incarnation to Death and Resurrection, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; there is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It is all about love. When Jesus asks what the greatest commandment is, he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets. But who is my neighbor, the lawyer asks. It doesn’t mean that person, does it? And Jesus said, it sure does. It might even mean a Samaritan. That goes over our heads, because for us it is the Good Samaritan, like the name of a hospital in Corvallis. Samaritans are good people, but that is not how people understood it when they heard this Gospel. A Samaritan was the last person you can imagine as your neighbor. So Jesus says you have to love even those people that you really don’t want to love. If that’s not clear enough, at one point Jesus says you have to love your enemies, too. Love is the center of the Gospel.
This passage that we hear today, this teaching from Jesus, is about how we love. We remain in relationship with people even when we are in conflict with them, and we treat them in love.
It is the same thing in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. This follows directly from last week’s reading when Paul was talking all about love. He said do not return evil for evil, but return good for evil, for it is like heaping burning coals on their head. There is nothing that the bully hates more than someone loving them back. It shakes everything up. So Jesus is teaching us the Gospel message to love.
I know it is not always easy. In fact, it is rather difficult sometimes. We think of love as being that feel good feeling, but love is so much more than that. Love is the very intentional practice of caring about another person, even when there doesn’t seem to be very much to care about. Love is that act of blessing and not cursing that Paul talked about last week. Love is not an easy thing. It is one of the most challenging things to do sometimes. So we might be relieved to think we can treat someone like a Gentile and ignore them. No. We have to keep engaging. You may need to create some boundaries about how you engage to avoid abuse, but that doesn’t mean we give up on trying to love them.
So, my friends, school is starting, which means you get homework, and that is to love. Love your neighbors, love at home, love at work, love out in the community. Love the person that is really easy to love, and love the person that is really hard to love as well. Love just as God loves you.
AMEN.
We have quite an interesting story in today’s gospel. It’s certainly NOT the typical picture of Jesus we are used to. First, context is key. Jesus has been talking to the crowds and arguing with the religious elite about ideas of purity, about what makes someone clean and what makes them impure.
Listen to or read Ryan’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More.”
Over the past several weeks St. Mary’s has held Quinceañera services here in the church in celebration of girls’ 15th birthdays. A Quinceañera is a tradition with both Mexican and Spanish roots, celebrated throughout Latin America and elsewhere. It marks the passage from girlhood to womanhood, emphasizing the importance of family and community in her life, and her changing responsibilities to them.
Listen to or read Deacon Nancy Crawford’s entire sermon by clicking “read more.”
"This past week I returned from England where I was helping lead our youth pilgrimage. We had a wonderful time. We visited London and Canterbury and York and other small towns nearby. It was a wonderful pilgrimage.
What is a pilgrimage? Scholars who study pilgrimages say the word is hard to define. There are definitions that cover different aspects, but every definition leaves something out. The scholars say pilgrimage is a rather slippery term. But for today’s purposes, let’s define pilgrimage as a physical journey one takes to a place with the goal, the intention of some sort of spiritual deepening, growth in faith, encounter with the divine, seeking God."
Happy Easter! It is truly a joy to be with you all today as we gather together to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But before we talk about that, we need to talk about something else. We need to talk about Christmas. Christmas? Just bear with me for a moment.
Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation, that is, when God became human. Incarnation means enfleshment, when God took on flesh, when Divinity came down to be in humanity so fully that God actually became a person. God made us. God made all creation, it was all good. When God made humans, there was something special about them. God placed God’s very image onto people. God wanted this close relationship with us, but we turned away from Him, we strayed, we got far away from God. We neglected, we rejected, we abused that image of God in each other and in ourselves. We, who were made in God’s image, the God who is love, were implanted with that, and did not live up to the expectations that one would expect for a creature made in God’s image.
So God wanted to reconcile us, and God tried all kinds of ways to get us to come back to Him. And finally God said, I will go out there to the people to achieve reconciliation. And that is the Incarnation, God going to us in humanity. But it is not just the birth of Jesus that is the Incarnation. It is just the beginning of it that we celebrate on the Feast of Christmas. The Incarnation is Jesus’s whole life. It is the fact that he was a vulnerable baby nursing at his mother. It was the fact that he was a surly teenager who made his parents worry. It was the fact that he had work to do in this world. It is the fact that he embraced humanity so fully that he enjoyed all the things we enjoy. Jesus liked a good party. That is one of the chief criticisms of him by his opponents. They said he ate too much and drank too much. He was a glutton and a drunkard, they said. To fully enter humanity he enjoyed all that, but he also had to enter into the suffering and the pain, the agony and the disappointment, the loneliness and the abandonment. He went to the cross on Good Friday, which is a profound implication of what it means to become human. For God to enter into humanity, God had to go down unto death. Not just any death, not a calm, peaceful death, but the worst kind of death that was imaginable. In the crucifixion, God would fully enter into the suffering that we experience in this world.
All of the Incarnational stuff from Christmas to Good Friday is the first part of what God is doing to reconcile humanity to God. God is going to humanity in its fullness. This is Part I.
Today is the beginning of Part II, the Resurrection. This is God coming up. This is God saying that death does not get the final word. While God went to humanity, embracing everything we experience, in the Resurrection and on to the Ascension, that human Jesus is now going back up into divinity, and pulling us along with him. Before he died, Jesus, in John’s Gospel, says, I will lift up all people unto me.
These two things, the Incarnation and the Resurrection, are working together to bring us back into full relationship, to be reconciled fully to God, the God who is love. Imagine a wound on a body and the surgeon sutures it by going down and up and down and up to pull the skin back together to heal that wound. That is what God is doing in the Incarnation and the Resurrection. God goes down to pull us up, to bring us back together, to bridge that gap, to allow the wound to heal.
So we celebrate, not just that Jesus Christ is risen, but we celebrate this amazing work of reconciliation that God is trying to achieve in this world through Jesus. We have Part II and Part II.
And there is a Part III. That is the part where we, who by virtue of our baptism died with Christ and we rose with Christ, are invited to engage in that work of reconciliation. To draw close to others, and to love. To embody that original vision and dream that God had when He implanted us with God’s image. To live in a world in which we have healing and unity and reconciliation. It is not easy work. It feels like it is harder work than ever. We are isolated from each other by technology, politics, and culture that pull us apart. But God is inviting us to a different way, a way to pull close to each other, and to love.
When the surgeon stitches up the wound, that is not the end of the project, that is when the healing begins. That is the work that we are engaged in at this time. We have a God who so loves and adores us that God came here in the Incarnation so that no matter how much we strayed, God would find us. No matter how far we went away, God would come to where we were and pull us in, and invite us to be healed and to help heal. In the name of the risen Christ, God invites us to be incarnate, to be resurrected, to help reconcile this world in love.
AMEN.
I’ve been there, or at least I think I have if the Biblical scholars and archeologists are correct. On my trip to the Holy Land in 2014 we stopped at Jacob’s well, which is located near the city of Nablas in the occupied territory of Palestine. In the late 1800’s a Greek Orthodox church was built around it, so these days the well is to be found in a very small room the walls of which are covered with icons, paintings, and a display of souvenirs for sale behind a small counter. We drew water from the well and sampled it. I remember being surprised at how cold it was. Still, even after tasting the water I had to close my eyes to try to picture the well out in the open on a hot sunny day with a man sitting next to it waiting for someone to come along who could draw him water. The man in my mind’s eye of course was Jesus, while the woman who eventually did come by remains nameless like many women in the Bible, and so is known to us simply as the Samaritan woman or sometimes the woman at the well.
It’s hard for me to imagine how this woman must have felt at finding a strange man sitting by the well, a man who upon speaking to her turned out to be a Jew. Her surprise at the situation notwithstanding, the woman did converse with Jesus, though initially that didn’t go terribly well. As in conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus, a well-educated Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, to those he had with his disciples who traveled with him and on some levels knew him well, what Jesus said to the woman and what she heard were definitely not the same thing. If you knew with whom you are speaking you would ask me for water and I would give you living water and you would never be thirsty again. Well, by all means give me some so I don’t have to keep coming here to draw water. Jesus offers her eternal life and the woman hears a way to get out of one of her more onerous daily tasks. But does that really surprise us? Who, coming here for the first time, really understands everything that is said and done? Throughout the Gospels we hear of many occasions where the things Jesus is reported to have said to people weren’t all that clear to his listeners upon first hearing. But as during his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus doesn’t lose patience with the woman in today’s reading, or dismiss her for her lack of understanding. Rather he shifts the conversation to talking about her, and she realizes then that this is no ordinary man. We watch her surprise at a Jewish man speaking to her in the first place morph into confusion at what he had to say then change to amazement when he’s able to tell her so much more about herself than would seem reasonable. She senses she’s speaking with a prophet. What an effective way to connect with someone, talk with them about things they know, and nothing’s going to be more familiar to anyone than themselves. Once a connection has been made, the person may be better able to hear and internalize topics more abstract, more spiritual in nature. Indeed, Jesus and the woman do go on to briefly discuss the Jewish versus Samaritan perspectives on where the faithful should worship. Once again the woman doesn’t fully understand all of what Jesus is saying, but she does declare that she knows the Messiah is coming to which Jesus replies, I am he, the one who is speaking to you. Before we have a chance to hear how the woman responds to this remarkable declaration, or even to make certain that she actually heard what Jesus said, the disciples show up, having gone to town for food. At that point the woman, maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed by a whole group of Jewish men, leaves her water jar and goes back to the city.
It is in the city that the most important action of this story takes place. The woman could have kept what she had just experienced to herself, fearing people might condemn her for talking with a strange man, no less a Jew. Or she might have kept silent worried they would think she was crazy if she shared the conversation she’d just had with this stranger by the well. Yes, she could have kept silent but she didn’t. Instead she said to everyone she encountered, Come and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done! Furthermore, we learn that she did hear what Jesus said at the end of their conversation because she adds, He can’t be the Messiah, can he? The story concludes by telling us that initially the people believed this man was special because of what the woman told them, but after encountering Jesus personally they were sufficiently moved by what he had to say that they invited him to stay with them, which he did for two days. By the time he left it was no longer because of what the woman had told them but rather because of what they experienced themselves while in Jesus’ presence that led them to believe that indeed this man truly was the Savior of the world.
During Epiphany Bingham preached about how early in Jesus ministry John the Baptist effectively lent his credibility to Jesus. At the time Jesus came to John to be baptized John was famous and had a large following. By telling his followers that this is the man I’ve been telling you about, you need to follow him, John effectively jump started Jesus’ earthly ministry. As Bingham explained, it was a matter of John saying to his followers you trust me and I trust him, so I’m asking you to trust him too. Bingham described that as the heart of evangelism. We see the same sort of thing happening in events in today’s Gospel with one huge difference. John was a well-known, flamboyant religious figure of his day. Of course he could influence what people did. So could Billy Graham or +Desmond Tutu. I remember hearing Bishop Ladehoff describe how moved he was when he heard Graham preach at one of his revivals. I remember how Bingham responded when he was interviewing for the assistant priest’s position here at St. Mary’s and someone asked him when he first sensed that he wanted to be a priest. He replied that it was when he was thirteen years old after hearing Desmond Tutu speak. There have unquestionably been countless people down through time who have become followers of Jesus or whose Christianity was immeasurably deepened by encountering a charismatic Christian leader. However, I would submit that many more people have come to know Jesus because of interactions with ordinary Christians.
Which brings us back to the woman in today’s Gospel. This nameless Samaritan was an ordinary woman, her rather unusual marital history notwithstanding, which should be both a comfort and a challenge to us, because it shows that an ordinary person, most likely far from perfect, could make a difference in other people’s lives. Her testimony led many people from her city to go out to see Jesus and to then invite him to stay with them, which he did. In the end they believed in him because they listened to Jesus, but the only reason they encountered Jesus in the first place was because of the woman’s invitation to “Come and see this man who told me everything I have ever done.”
Rather than living as faithful Episcopalians are notorious for doing, keeping our church involvement totally to ourselves because we’re worried the people who know us in other settings will think less of us somehow if they find out we’re people of faith, we need to be open to those moments when it seems appropriate to say Come and see…. Come make sandwiches with me on Saturday. You’ll be amazed how many other people will be there doing the same thing. Come to Journey Fellowship with me Sunday, it’s really fun. Why don’t you bring your kids to church this week and they can go to Sunday School with our kids. See how they like it. Maybe your friends will come, maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll come once and then bow out. Or maybe, just maybe, they’ll find a connection here that will bring them back long enough to develop a faith every bit as deep as your own.
I will never forget Sunday, February 6, 2011. That was the day after the two Mr. Axemen candidates were swept into the ocean near Yachats and drowned. After coming together in horrified disbelief midday on Saturday and spending the rest of the day and the night together, the high school students from South who belonged to St. Mary’s brought their friends to church with them on Sunday morning. There were two full pews of young people sitting right over there, two full pews of utterly devastated young people. The nonmembers of St. Mary’s didn’t come back as far as I know, but I sincerely believe that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives the time they spent here that Sunday, first in church for the service itself and then with Bingham after the service. Who knows, years from now, maybe at another crushingly difficult moment in their lives when they don’t know where else to turn for help, or when they’ve started a family and realize they want their children to experience something of what they remember experiencing here that day long ago, they’ll decide they need to come back to St. Mary’s and they’ll bring their family with them. If that happens it will be because they had high school friends who weren’t afraid to invite them to come to church when those friends believed church was where they all most of all needed to be. They would come back because they had friends, like the woman at the well, who were willing to say, Come, Come and see….. Amen.
A couple of months ago in the middle of January, in early Epiphany, there were a couple of weeks when we heard Gospel readings about the first disciples, how they encountered Jesus for the first time, and how they came to follow him. The portrait of these early disciples that the Gospels painted for us is one rather enthusiastic bunch. It does not take much for them to leave everything behind, families, jobs, responsibilities, and go and follow Jesus. There was a little bit of reticence in Nathaniel when he first heard about Jesus from Phillip. From Nazareth? Really? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But Phillip said, come and see, and as soon as Nathaniel met Jesus, he also left everything and followed Jesus.
The portrait that the Gospels paint of the enthusiasm to follow Jesus does not translate into an enthusiasm to actually listen to Jesus. Like when Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him for what he is teaching, and Jesus rebukes Peter right back. In the Gospel a few weeks ago up on the Mountain of Transfiguration we heard the voice say this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. The disciples don’t do a very good job of this. The most epic failure of listening is at the cross. Jesus told them time and again he was going to have to die, and it’s going to be by a cross. It actually happens, and the disciples all disappear. There were a couple of disciples who hung back with Jesus, but the really enthusiastic ones, the first disciples we heard about in the Gospels, none of them stuck around. They abandoned him in that moment.
In our Gospel today we have the beginning of a different portrait about a different kind of disciple. It is about Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a man full of faith, he is a well respected community and religious leader, he is wealthy. He has been hearing about Jesus and is intrigued. He knows there is something about God going on in this, but doesn’t quite know what to make of it. So Nicodemus goes at night when it is dark so that people can’t see him. And, since this is John’s Gospel, light and dark are always a metaphor, so this also has something to do with Nicodemus’s internal sense, some sense of darkness in his confusion, his lack of understanding. He is looking for the light, the clarity. So he goes to Jesus by night and starts asking questions. Unlike those first disciples who it seems at Jesus’s first word were ready to leave everything, Nicodemus isn’t so sure. He asks more questions, he probes, but those beautiful lines from Jesus don’t set right with him. He leaves the conversation. He is not quite sure what he makes of Jesus at this point.
Fast forward several chapters, and Jesus, in John’s Gospel, goes back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem. But now Jesus is back in Jerusalem, where Nicodemus lives, for the Festival of Booths. Jesus is teaching and people are coming to him and begin referring to him as the Messiah. This is getting the leaders scared, understandably so, because their understanding of the Messiah is someone who will lead an armed rebellion against their oppressor. If they get this wrong about who the Messiah is, it will not be good for them because Rome will come and squash the movement. The leaders don’t want to jump behind someone they are not convinced is the Messiah. So the leaders, who are quite unhappy, want to do something about Jesus. They have made up their mind he is not the Messiah. They want him arrested and are upset it hasn’t happened yet. Nicodemus is one of these leaders. He doesn’t give a full throated defense of Jesus. It is like he sticks his toe in the water to defend Jesus. Nicodemus asks, doesn’t he at least deserve a trial? Shouldn’t there be some due process. This is the bare minimum, and even that effort gets the leaders to turn on Nicodemus. They say no, what are you talking about? We don’t need a trial. We already know the answer. He is obviously not the Messiah, and this is going to be bad for us. Besides, he is from Galilee. Are you from Galilee, Nicodemus? They are trying to pin guilty by association on him just for requesting a trial. Nicodemus is getting the point that it will be dangerous for him to be a follower of Jesus.
Let’s fast forward again. Jesus goes back to Galilee, then returns to Jerusalem, this time for the Festival of Passover, which also happens to be when he goes to the cross and he dies. All of those super enthusiastic Disciples have all run away, but who is there? Nicodemus. When push comes to shove, he shows up and he does the right thing. He brings a hundred Roman pounds, about thirty-four pounds as we understand it today, of perfumes and oils to anoint Jesus’s body in preparation for burial. This is an extravagant amount, which shows Nicodemus’s wealth, but it also shows his affection, his care, his love for Jesus. This is more than the bare minimum that he now offers. He is signaling to everybody that he is a follower of Jesus.
We have these two portraits of different Disciples. The super enthusiastic ones and the reticent ones. I’m not trying to suggest that one is better than the other, I simply want to say that there are different paths that a follower of Jesus can take. If you are like St. Peter and are one of those super enthusiastic ones, God bless you. That is wonderful. I think it’s fantastic. But do make sure you listen. Don’t let your enthusiasm get in the way of your listening like those other guys did. And if you find yourself a bit like me, more reticent at times, that’s OK, too. That is a good and valid path as well. One that is willing to continue to ask questions, to push and to wonder.
When push comes to shove, the important thing is where are we on Good Friday? In the end what really matters is not which path we take, but that we try our best to put our trust in God as we understand it in Jesus Christ, his Son. In the beautiful words we heard in the Gospel, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who trusts him may not perish, but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him. In the end, it is about what Jesus does for us in God’s love that matters the most.
So keep trying to follow, enthusiastically or with reticence, joyfully or full of questions, or both at the same time. It’s all good because God loves you.
AMEN.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, draw us closer to you and to one another. May the light of Christ shine through these words. Amen.
As we examine the epiphanies of this season, these stories about Jesus’ teaching and actions, we can start to form a clearer picture of what it would like to be his followers, to live as Christians in our world.
In today’s gospel, we continue the story of Jesus teaching his disciples on the mountain. Jesus began his public ministry with the call to metanoia, a changing of heart, mind, and action. And he declared that God’s kingdom, (which remember for Jesus this kingdom is in contrast to the kingdoms of the world, whose ways of ruling emphasize power over others, in this kingdom that Jesus proclaims, governance is more equal, more relational, more connected, with everyone working together as kin, so Jesus’ kingdom is more of a kindom), and this kingdom slash kindom that he declared, was very near, and in fact, was being created in their midst through Jesus’ works of healing and love. And Jesus invited everyone to help create this kindom.
Change your hearts and change your lives. Heaven is here and now, among you and within you! And Jesus continued this new way of thinking, as we heard last week, by pronouncing blessings on those who were poor, mourning, meek, hungry, merciful, and persecuted---the beatitudes.
The very people who were not held up as blessed, powerful, or successful in the eyes of the world, were invaluable, beloved, assured of God’s loving presence in the midst of their sufferings.
Today, Jesus continues his teaching by telling the disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt, that great preservative that maintains, that seasons, and adds flavor. Just a few tiny grains or flakes can make such a big difference! And light, like a city on a hill shining in the distance, like a lamp on a stand, or single candle flame that can light up the whole room.
I wonder, by our life and works do we preserve and care for people? Do we bring flavor, adding something that improves the quality of life? Do we shine, beacons, helping others to see, bringing warmth and clarity.
In Jesus’ call to change our hearts and lives and join him in creating heaven on earth, he carries the message of the prophets who came before him. Last week, the prophet Micah told us that God didn’t want offerings of calves, thousands of rams or tens of thousands of rivers of oil, or even our firstborn sons. No, what God desires from us are three things. To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God. As our baptismal covenant puts it: to strive for justice and peace among all people, to respect the dignity of every human being, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. And through the prophet Isaiah, once again, today we hear that God is not pleased by big attempts at showing we are holy or righteous, or that we know just the right ways to worship to get God to notice us and reward us. No. This isn’t the kind of fasting that God desires.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and to not hide your face from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…” (Isaiah 58: 6-8).
Jesus continues in this line of the prophets, speaking God’s desire for our world. Elsewhere, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus takes his turn reading in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and he reads these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (And then he said:) Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21).
In Jesus’ words echoing the prophets, we see how we can be salt and light. By advocating for the release of the oppressed, by noticing and working to undo systems of injustice in our society, by working together to feed the hungry and to find solutions for the unhoused, the mentally ill, and those suffering from substance use disorder. By providing food, clothing, shelter, and health care, we are salt and light. We follow Jesus by acting out God’s love for the world in how we care for others, by NOT hiding our faces from the problems of our world, from our own kin, humans created in the loving image and likeness of God. By noticing, interacting, sharing and caring for them, by advocating and working for change in the systems that oppress them, we can be salt and light. And in this way, we let our lights so shine before others that they see the good we are doing, our co-creation of God’s kindom here and now, and give glory to God.
This revelation, this epiphany, is that Jesus’ mission is to bring good news to the poor, to free people from whatever holds them down, to help people see that they matter, that they are valued and loved, to let everyone know that a good and loving God created them and promises to be with them always. And this mission of Jesus is OUR mission too! Let this be our epiphany, what we are called to do and be as followers of Jesus is to act out God’s love for the world in how we care for least, the last and the lost. So be it. Amen.
Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, inhabit these words, work in our hearts and minds, that we may see and be your dream for our world. Amen.
Guess who’s back? John the Baptist, AGAIN! When Jesus hears about his cousin’s arrest, he goes to Galilee. He leaves his home in Nazareth and sets up in Capernaum, by the sea. He calls some of his first disciples, Andrew, Peter, James and Jon, and he launches his public ministry. Remember when his mom wanted him to help with the wedding feast in Cana and he told her it wasn’t his time? Now, it’s his time. And from this point he begins changing his world in ways that are still resonating today. The first message of Jesus’ public ministry is: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” (Matt 4: 17)
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
Now, this word repent can come with some pretty negative connotations, as in, repent for all of the terrible things you’ve done you horrible person.
But…from the Greek, Metanoeo, maybe you recognize, metanoia, the changing of one’s heart or mind, changing one’s way of being. Change your hearts, and change your lives, is Jesus’ springboard. In the best of circumstances, new ways of seeing and thinking lead us to realize that the way we were operating in the past wasn’t good for us, but it doesn’t have to mean a terrible beating up of ourselves over how we couldn’t quite see or understand something, about how we made bad decisions or choices. Remember, the things that we realize we need to repent of, to change our minds, hearts, and lives about, are NOT who we are. Those times when we fall, and make mistakes, don’t define us. God loves us not due to anything we do or don’t do, but just for the sheer fact that God is love. That is God’s nature. We are loved because God is love. God couldn’t act any other way!
Change your hearts and your lives because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near, Jesus says. The Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God, as in, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, or The Reign of God, all of these are sometimes confused with the idea of heaven itself as some far-off, perfect place that, if we are good enough, we’ll get into later after we die. NOPE.
Jesus begins his ministry by telling us to change our way of thinking and being because the Kingdom of Heaven, is very near, in fact, it’s here and now in his words and actions, becoming more and more real every day. This Kingdom, or KINdom of God, God’s kin coming together in peace and love, is something that Jesus has brought and something that we are invited to help create with our actions. Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry often refers to this as God’s dream for us. God’s dream for a world and a humanity in right relationship with itself, with creation, and with God. Throughout his life, Jesus talks about this kingdom again and again.
‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ (Mark 1:15)
‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. (Mark 4:26-7)
With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’ (Mark 4:30-32)
‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ (Mark 10:14-5)
But he said to them, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.’ (Luke 4:43)
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. (Luke 8:1)
…And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9:2)
Jesus and his disciples are proclaiming that God’s way of being in our world, this good news of the kingdom that Jesus exemplifies by curing every disease and every sickness among the people, this way of God exercising divine power, is a loving way, a healing way, an inviting in, a valuing of all people, and of all things, kind-of-way. For the people of his time and for us, this kind of rule, authority, or governance, is VERY different from anything that we have ever known. And that is the point. This is a radical new change, a metanoia in the way we order things in our lives. And Jesus is calling us to participate in its creation. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus is announcing that this Kindom of God, God’s dream for us, is active and happening here and now. It was foretold and witnessed by John the Baptist, put into action through the loving ministry of Jesus, continued by his disciples, and now, taken up by us. God’s love, forgiveness, and care are here for us to take part in now.
I hope you can come to realize that you don’t need to work and worry about getting into heaven after you die. You don’t need to! Seriously. Change your mind, change your heart, heaven is already here! It can be recognized in the smallest things and then shared in the smallest of ways. When we, like the brothers, Peter, Andrew, James and Jon, hear Jesus’ call and follow him, then we too can start seeing, seeking, and helping Jesus create the Kindom of God now.
Where can you find evidence of God’s dream on earth?
In the beauty of nature: mountains, trees, lakes,
rivers, oceans, sunsets,
the amazing diversity and beauty of our human, plant, and animal populations,
the joy of children, the warmth and tenderness of relationships, the generosity of others? In SO many ways Heaven is all around us, the reality of God’s loving care a reality of this world we live in here and now.
Siblings in Christ, I pray that today we may heed Jesus’ call to repent, to begin to see and hear differently, to recognize God’s love at work all around us. And then to join together with John the Baptist and Jesus to call others to this metanoia with us, to share what we have seen, and through our words and actions bear witness, and help to create God’s dream for us. Amen.
In today’s Gospel reading we heard a story that included John the Baptist. We have been hearing a lot about John the Baptist recently. He showed up on two separate Sundays in December, and this is the second Sunday he has showed up in January. So, who is this John the Baptist we have been hearing so much about?
John was an itinerant preacher and baptizer. He was a charismatic, popular, trustworthy, reliable person. He came from a very religious family, but a rather traditional one. His father was a priest, which was an inherited position that one was born into. If your dad was a priest, then you were born to be a priest. The priests would take turns offering the sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. John’s dad was a well respected priest who would take his turn offering those sacrifices. It was assumed John would do the same, but he decided to leave all that behind and go into the desert to live an ascetic life in which he preached, proclaiming God’s imminent judgment upon the people for all the wrong they had been doing, and calling them to turn from those ways, to be baptized as a sign of their transformation, and to live their life anew. He had a moral, ethical message for everyone, which was basically a message of sharing. If you have two and someone has none, given them one. If you have one and someone has none, give them half, a leveling out of things as the Prophet puts it.
We know from the Gospel that John was famous. He had his own disciples. Early on he had been seeking people out, but he didn’t need to do that anymore. Any time he went to a new area, the word was in front of him that John the Baptist was coming. Word spread very quickly. He did not to seek out people, they found him because there was something charismatic about him that drew people to him and his message. King Herod, not King Herod of the Christmas story, but his son, King Herod, didn’t like John because John was criticizing him. Herod was worried because John was someone the people trust. Herod was concerned the people would start believing all the bad things John was saying about Herod, which were all true. Herod wanted John to stop so the people wouldn’t turn on him, so he has John arrested and put in jail. And yet, even Herod, the person who wanted John put away, was attracted to him. There was something so intriguing about John that he couldn’t kill him, even though his wife wanted him to. Herod resisted for quite a while, but he does eventually kill John. There is an interesting detail in Mark’s Gospel about how after John was arrested, Herod would go down to John in jail to listen to him, to hear what he had to say. It says Herod was perplexed by him, but also deeply attracted to him. There is something about John.
We might get the impression, because John says I have to decrease so Jesus can increase, that it is the way it went, but John continued to preach, continued to baptize, and people continued to follow him. Later on, when Jesus asks who do people say that I am, the first answer is some say that you are John the Baptist. To many people who heard of an itinerant preacher who is charismatic and preaching about God’s judgement, it sounded like John the Baptist. Many people confused John and Jesus. Herod, when he heard about Jesus after John had been beheaded, thought it was John the Baptist raised from the dead who might try and get some revenge. Even generations later, seventy years later, when Josephus writes his great history of the Jewish people, he writes twice as much about John the Baptist as he writes about Jesus. Generations later, John was more important to most people than Jesus was.
John was somebody important to the people at the time that Jesus shows up, to the people at the time the Gospels were written, and even later. He is popular, he is trustworthy, he is reliable. So what is John doing in this Gospel reading? John is providing credibility to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have any followers, yet. No one knows what he is about, no one knows who he is. And John is saying you trust me, and I trust him. Why don’t you go check that out? If this was a movie, you would assume that John the Baptist would be the leading actor, like Tom Hanks or Cary Grant, if that is your reference point. And Jesus, at best, would be a supporting actor. For most people, Jesus was nothing more than an extra in the story of John. John is trying to pass along some of his credibility over to Jesus. You trust me, I trust him. Go check him out.
That is how the faith gets passed along, people sharing about this guy Jesus. A person, listening to someone they trust, go and check it out. That is what happens in the Gospel today. John says there is the Lamb of God, and one of his followers, Andrew, goes and checks it out.
It doesn’t quite work like that for us today. When we hear the Gospel, unlike the first people hearing the Gospel and thinking that John is someone they should listen to, we think, who is this John that Jesus thinks is important? It has been reversed for us. It is not that John provides credibility for Jesus. Jesus provides credibility for John for us. We ask who is this weird guy that shows up a few times in the Gospel story? He is a strange aside to the whole thing. Why does he matter? He must be important because Jesus wanted John to baptize him, so I should pay attention to him although I can’t figure it all out. It is inverted. Jesus gives credibility to John.
John’s role of giving credibility to Jesus does not work for us. It has to be somebody else. We can’t just read the Gospel and accept the transferred credibility from John. For me, that person was Desmond Tutu. He was the charismatic, itinerant preacher I heard when I was thirteen years old. I trusted him, and he trusted this guy so I wanted to check this guy out.
It doesn’t have to be a famous charismatic person. There is sometimes a danger in such a person. I would argue there is another model which is probably the model more people have come to learn about Jesus. That is the model of one to one. Someone you trust, someone who is not famous, perhaps it is someone no one else really knows, shared it with you. This is what we have in the story of Andrew in today’s Gospel. Andrews tells his brother I think we have found the Messiah. Come check this out. Simon trusts his brother Andrew, so he goes, and it changes the entire trajectory of his life.
For us, it might be a sibling, maybe a parent or a grandparent, maybe a friend. But there is somebody like that who shared it with us. All of this is getting awfully close to some words that make us uncomfortable as Episcopalians. Words like evangelism, testimony, witnessing. I know we don’t talk about these words because of what these words have become to mean, and we think that is not what we do. But I promise you that there is somebody in your life who shared it with you. Whether a famous charismatic, itinerant preacher, or someone that only you know. You wouldn’t know about all this unless someone along the way had said something to you. Someone that you trusted who trusted Jesus, and you decided to check it out. There are probably lots of somebodies. It probably wasn’t a one time thing. And it continues. People who you trust and are interested in Jesus share it with you, and you keep coming back.
This week I want to encourage you to take some time to think about who it was in your life. Who was the person or the persons who shared the story with you? Who was the person you trusted who trusted Jesus who made you decide to check it out, and then continue to check it out? Then, take a little time and think about who you have shared it with. It doesn’t have to be with words. Our baptismal covenant says share the Good News by word and example. Maybe you have shared with someone by how you live your life, and they realized there is something about this Jesus guy who is important to this person I trust, so there is maybe something I should check out. Take some time to think about those, because that is how the faith gets passed along. You trust me, I trust Jesus, why don’t we go check him out?
AMEN.
Epiphany, which we celebrated Friday and which continues today, is one of the earliest and most profound annual celebrations in the Church. There are three Gospel stories which are always presented in Epiphany that show forth the Christ as the Messiah to the whole world. One, of course, is the coming of the Wise Men. Perhaps today we should call it the coming of the Wise Persons. Here at St. Mary’s we have the Three Kings in the creche, we have the Three Kings banner with the three crowns, and the banner of the star of Bethlehem. Another story heard during Epiphany is the Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee. Here we have the banner showing the water turning into wine, and a stained glass window showing a rather severe looking Jesus doing his miracle at the Wedding Feast. The third story is the Baptism of Jesus and his anointing by the Holy Spirit, which is told in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Each one has a little different take on the story. And the story of the Holy Spirit anointing Jesus is represented by a banner hanging above us, as well as the baptismal font at the front of the church.
I want to talk about water and the baptism of Jesus. There are two facts about water that are important to our understanding. One is that the water we have is all the water we have. The water in the McKenzie River is the same water that the dinosaurs played in, killed in, and did their business in. However, the statement that all the water we have is not 100% true. After I had delivered this sermon at Christ Church in Blacksburg Virginia, the home of Virginia Tech, one of the science professors pulled me aside and said that when lightning strikes granite, we get a few drops of brand new, fresh water. And someone who is doing pioneering work in atlernative fuels for cars pulled me aside and said that if you have a hydrogen powered car, it dribbles water out the back. Then someone else said when a comet comes near the earth, it drops ice cubes into the atmosphere. So it is not actually 100% true that the water we have is all the water we have, but it works in a sermon.
The second fact is that water circulates. It evaporates into the air, forms clouds which circulate around the world, the water comes down in the form of rain, snow, ice, sleet, and lands in lakes, rivers and streams. The water flows to the ocean and that water circulates, also. So the water we have is all the water we have, and the water circulates. Throughout this world, we all drink from one well.
We had a baptism today in an earlier service, and in that font of water were molecules that were in the Red Sea the day the Children of Israel left slavery and went into the desert. There were molecules in the puddles that brushed against garments, perhaps against Moses. There are molecules in the font that were in the Jordan River the day Joshua led the Children of Israel out of the desert into the Promised Land. There are molecules in that water that were flowing in the Jordan River the day that Jesus was baptized, and would have brushed against Jesus. There are molecules in the baptismal water that were in the Jordan River the day Jesus was nailed to the cross, and the day the women went to the tomb and the tomb was empty.
This means that when we are baptized, we are spiritually, but also physically, joined to the Children of Israel fleeing from slavery and heading to freedom. We are physically and spiritually joined to Jesus at his baptism. And we are physically and spiritually present at the crucifixion and the resurrection. Isn’t that incredible?
Why does God do this? For one reason only: Because God is love God loves us you, each and every one, more than you can ask or begin to imagine.
AMEN.
Merry Christmas! It is still Christmas. Christmas is a season with twelve days that begins on Christmas Day, it does not end on Christmas Day. So you can keep celebrating, eating all that good food, singing Christmas carols, giving gifts. Today is the 8th day of Christmas, so your true love was supposed to give you eight maids a milking.
Today is also January 1st, which means I need to say Happy New Year. I hope this coming year, 2023, is full of blessing and joy and peace for you and all those you love, and for our parish at St. Mary’s. It is a big day: the 8th day of Christmas, New Year’s Day, and also the Feast of the Holy Name. There is much to celebrate on this day.
The Feast of the Holy Name is an interesting feast. There are two things that we are commemorating on this day. The first thing we are commemorating is an event. The action, the event, of taking Jesus after eight days and circumcising him and giving him the name of Jesus. This Feast is based on one verse in Scripture, and in many ways we could overlook this. It is something of a foregone conclusion because the angel had already said that his name would be Jesus. And yet, I think there is something more going in this event, because Mary and Joseph have the opportunity to take the name that the angel said and give it to Jesus. They have the opportunity to participate in what God is doing in this world. In the same way when the angel announced to Mary all that was to take place, Mary had to consent, had to say yes to God by saying, Let it be according to Thy word. Here again she has the opportunity to confirm her involvement in what God is doing in Jesus. God doesn’t just act in this world, but invites people to act. So it might be a foregone conclusion, but perhaps Mary could have done something else. She might have named him Joseph, another possible name. But she didn’t. She picked the name that the angel told her. She confirmed her involvement in what God was doing.
The second thing we are commemorating on this day is an idea, a concept about names. When you make a Feast Day for a name, it suggests that names matter. “What’s in a name”, Juliet said from the balcony. “That which we call a rose by any other name would be as sweet,” suggesting that names do not matter. But of course the rest of Shakespeare’s play reminds us that names very much do matter, with rather tragic consequences sometimes when we ignore the importance and the power of a name.
The religious spiritual writer Frederick Buechner, who died this year, has a lovely reflection on names. He begins by talking about his own name, which gets mispronounced a lot. He says that whenever somebody mispronounces his name in a foolish way, he feels that it is he, himself, who is foolish. He says that when someone forgets his name, he feels that it is he, himself, that has been forgotten. Names are important. Names matter. Names have power.
I think he overstated the case somewhat, and that’s partly because I am terrible at remembering names. I promise you, I have not forgotten you when I have forgotten your name. I have a lot of names to learn, and I am not very good at it. I wasn’t good in biology class, either, when I had to name all the parts of the cell. Remembering that sort of thing is not a particular gift that I have.
Now I have one of those weird names that people mispronounce and misspell all the time. I had an experience recently that made me think Buechner is on to something. Although I’ve never felt like someone has forgotten me when they don’t remember my name, or that I’m foolish when they foolishly mispronounce or misspell my name, I had the exception that proved the rule a few weeks ago. I was at a coffee shop, and for someone with a weird name, there is a moment of dread every time I make my order, because they ask at the end, and what is your name? I say, Bingham, and they have a flinching moment and sometimes ask, Huh? Sometimes they ask, Can you say that again, or Can you spell that for me, or sometimes they pause and go for it: Benjamin, Bingo was a fun one, Bigam is a spelling I sometimes see on the cup. But I had this moment a few weeks ago when I said Bingham, and there was no flinch. There was no follow up question, and I had a really strange feeling of being known. Does this person know me? In that moment I had to see the receipt to see if they spelled it right. I asked for the receipt, and there it was, spelled the way I spell it, spelled correctly. There was a lightness that stayed with me for hours that the barista knew me because they got my name right. For the first time, I understood what Buechner meant. Maybe my name had just been so mangled over the years that I had gotten used to it. But I felt how powerful it is to be known by your name and having it right.
I know people who have changed their name when they got married and then years later changed it back because it didn’t really fit. I know people who have changed their name to a name they selected. And in doing so, for the first time in their life they felt that they were who they were. There was something that was off in the name that had been given to them at birth. And by selecting the name they had always felt was their real name, they were finally themselves.
Names are important. Names matter. The name of Jesus matters. Why does it matter? There are a couple of things. One is that the name Jesus is an English translation, but it is not the only way we translate that word. The other way is Joshua. The Hebrew name that Jesus had was Yeshua, the same name that Joshua had, the successor to Moses. There is something very deliberate in giving them the same name. The successor to Moses is the one who leads the people into the Promised Land, into their new homes. And Jesus is the one who leads us, shepherds us into the Promised Land. The one who proclaims the Kingdom of God, the reign of God in this world and tells us it is near, that it is among us, that it is within us, and leading us to live in that Kingdom, just as Joshua was leading the people into that Promised Land. There is a deliberate connection in choosing that name.
The second thing about Jesus’s name that is so important is what the name Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus means, which is God saves. In Jesus’s name we are seeing what it is that God is doing in him. In Jesus we have the Incarnation of God and God’s salvific work in this world which is proclaimed to us in his very name. He is stamped with this work that will be his life and his death and his resurrection, which is the work of salvation, the work of liberation, the work of bringing people up from all the misery they are experiencing. Every time that Jesus heals someone, or feeds someone, he is living into that name that has been planted within him. God saves. God frees. God liberates.
On this Feast of the Holy Name, we are remembering this event. We are remembering the way Mary was invited to participate in what God was doing, and remembering that God is inviting us to participate in that work. We are remembering this name, we are offering our gratitude, our thanks, our praise for the work of salvation that God is doing in our lives, bringing people up from the misery they experience. In that name we find the embodiment that Isaiah has been telling us throughout Advent about the peaceable Kingdom, the swords being transformed into plowshares, hills being brought down and valleys lifted up. We are hearing, in Jesus’s very name, and celebrating all that God is doing in our lives.
So, my friends, celebrate this name. Celebrate the work that God is doing in your life, and offer your praise.
AMEN
May this be in the name of our loving, liberating, life-giving God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Happy Third Sunday of Advent to you! This third Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday or Rose Sunday. The Episcopalchurch.org glossary provides more insight: Gaudete Sunday is: “The third Sunday of Advent…The term is derived from the Latin opening words of the antiphon, “Rejoice (Gaudete) in the Lord always.” The theme of the day expresses the joy of anticipation at the approach of the Christmas celebration…It was appropriate for the celebrant of the Mass to wear rose-colored vestments on this day instead of the deeper violet vestments that were typically used in Advent. This Sunday was also known as “Rose Sunday.” This custom is reflected by the practice of including a pink or rose-colored candle among the four candles of an Advent wreath. (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/gaudete-sunday/)
We don’t have any pink vestments here at St. Mary’s, but I’ve seen some pretty sweet looking ones in pictures online. But we do light our pink or rose-colored candle today and our theme is one of rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, rejoice! We rejoice, as our collect says, in the bountiful grace and mercy with which our God comes among us to speedily help us and deliver us. And we rejoice in the powerful imagery of restoration provided by the prophet Isaiah.
The lost and dried-up areas of our lives, Isaiah tells us, will be made glad, the desert shall rejoice and new life will bloom, like crocuses sprouting up all over, singing songs as they pop their multi-colored blossoms out of dormant soil. This new joy will strengthen hands that have grown weak, and make wobbly knees sturdy. And people who are afraid will be encouraged to take heart, because God is here and comes to save.
Those who are blind will be able to see again, and those who can’t hear, their ears will be opened. People unable to stand will spring up and dance, and people who couldn’t speak will suddenly start talking up a storm of praise for the healing, restoring, and saving God.
What was a desert, will be filled with gushing water, streams and pools. Formerly arid land will now be abundant with fresh-flowing springs. And where there was no path through the dark and treacherous way, a wide, clear, smooth highway will appear, it will be named, “The Holy Way” and it will be for all of God’s people, and there won’t be any way to take a wrong turn and lose the path. All paths will lead to God’s loving care. No one will have to worry about any dangers on this path, it will be full of everyone who has been made whole, redeemed, and healed. And all those who had been sent away, or barred from entering, lost, or held back, will all join the path together singing and rejoicing in God’s healing way.
On their heads they’ll all have ten-gallon hats of joy that never fade, and they’ll be glad, oh so glad to be on this highway together, all of their sorrow and sighing long gone, blown away, forgotten for good. Woah!
These are the images that Isaiah provided for the people of Israel during the toughest of their times. These image of God’s restoration, protection, and abundant healing love to come. As it was for them in their despair and pain, so it is for us in ours, whatever it may be. During this season of Advent, we are called to look forward, to watch together for the coming of our loving God, for the outpouring of God’s love onto our fractured world, for the strength and encouragement for this journey on earth as we travel together, seeking the time, the place, the way of rejoicing foreshadowed in the coming of a young woman. A young woman pregnant and travelling, carrying her worries and concerns, our worries and concerns, pregnant with hope, with the expectation of the coming joy that this new birth, this special baby will bring.
John the Baptist new these images from Isaiah as he and others of his time watched and waited. And the life and ministry of this Christ child caused him to question and to ask if Jesus was the indeed one to come, the Messiah, or if they should keep watching and waiting. Jesus responds with echoes of the health and restoration foretold by Isaiah: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. What do you think? Look at God’s love in action in peoples’ lives, healing, and restoration. This is the one about whom it was written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way before you.’ The Christ child born in Bethlehem comes to prepare the way for us ALL, to traverse the deserts of our lives, and through the bountiful grace and mercy of our loving God, to transform them. To transform them into oases. To transformed them into blooming new life. To transform them into strength. To transform them into new vision, new hearing, new speaking. To transform them into new joy and rejoicing.
Siblings in the hope and joy of Christ, let us travel this highway, this Holy Way together, confident in the redemption of our lives through the coming of the Christ child. Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice! Gaudete! Amen.
Let us pray: May these words bring encouragement, inspiration, and hope in the name of our loving God who was and is and is to come. Amen.
“Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). So that by steadfastness, or a “steady and unwavering course in love, allegiance, or conviction,” ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steadfastness) and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. That we might have hope. Ooof, sometimes, in these times, it can be pretty tough to find, hold on to, hold out any, cling to, or have, hope. Things can get, and have gotten, pretty hopeless in our world today. I’m not going to even try and deny it. Whether in the deterioration of this fragile earth our island home, the polarization of our society and politics, the ongoing pandemic and war, increase in the number of people without houses, increase in the number of people suffering from addiction, increase in the number of people, especially young people, besieged with mental illness and contemplating suicide, to say nothing of the difficulty and complexity of our own families, friends, and relationships and the knots they wrap us up in. Life is hard. Life is messy. Family is complicated. Relationships with others and with ourselves are tough. And, it’s hard to stay hopeful. For some among us, the holidays can be the bleakest and toughest of times as they bring back past trauma, potential new trauma, and the bitter pain of the loss of loved ones. I invite you to be gentle and tender with yourselves and with others, remembering that the holidays are not all happy, joyful, and hopeful times for many people, and that’s OK. In our human lives here on this earth there are no simple, clearcut answers, no easy solutions to fix and tidy everything up, no bow to tie around it all. But…today’s lesson and this season of Advent, this season of waiting, and watching for what is to come, invite us to squint our eyes, turn our heads to the side, and open our ears, hearts and minds, to be encouraged and reminded by what happened in that tiny little town of Bethlehem so long ago. If ever there was a life-changing, awe-inspiring, hope-creating event, it has to be the birth of a new baby. A true miracle of life. The precious fragility, tiny perfection, and limitless possibilities to come, a new beginning, a new future, a new hope.
What Paul reminds us of today is that these stories, and our traditions at this dreary and cold time of the year, are meant as lights for us, guiding, encouraging, reminding us of what is to come, offering hope. The coming of God into our world in the form of a human baby, the Creator of the Universe incarnate, dwelling here among us, as one of us, has ENORMOUS and everlasting implications. And not just this single event of a baby’s birth, but beyond the manger, star, shepherds and angels, forward to the teaching, healing, status-quo upending, ultimate love-sacrificing life of Jesus, and the glorious love-over-death resurrection. In these stories of God’s love come down to earth, we find instruction, teaching for our lives, encouragement as we get to know and understand God’s dream for us and our world, and ultimately, hope. Hope that we so desperately need in our lives. Hope to get us through, hope that invites us to look toward the future, toward what is to come, to the advent of what God’s love will achieve in our world.
I wonder, in these times of Advent can we begin to imagine, to envision together the coming of God’s reign here on earth? God’s gracious rule, when and where, the prophet Isaiah tells us, a little green tendril will push up and grow and grow. And this new life, this messiah, the anointed one to come will bring justice to the poor and equity to those who are overlooked. In this advent, natural enemies, predator and prey will hang out together in harmony, wolves with lambs, leopards with goats, calves with lions, and a vulnerable little child will be the one to lead them all. And there will be no more hurting or destruction, because the whole earth will fully know God’s goodness and love, it will be inundated, soaked in it like the waters of the Pacific. This is certainly an awesome and amazing picture of the hope that is to come---advent.
And in this season, as we journey with Mary and Joseph, let us seek encouragement and hope in what has been written about the coming of the baby Jesus and in these future images of unity, peace, and harmony. Paul instructs us to do our part to usher in this dream of God, to kindle and grow this hope of what is to come, by doing our best to live in harmony with one another, by working to welcome one another the way that Christ welcomes us, with open and loving arms, shining the light of God’s hopeful, caring connectivity, on the desolation, hurt, and hopelessness of our world today. Where we do the best that we can to live in harmony with others, to see them as God sees them, to show them, as Jesus showed them: dignity, value, belovedness. Where we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, as children, adopted, invited, claimed, beloved. In so doing, we make God smile. And we join in helping bring about God’s loving plan for us. We bring hope. We offer hope. We live together in hope.
Siblings in Christ, prepare yourselves for the coming of Jesus. Take encouragement and regain hope from the stories of what has come, what is coming now, and what will come. Wait, and watch, and hope together this Advent for what is to come. And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday of a new season. Not only that, it is the first Sunday in the Church Year. So Happy New Year. I hope you had a big party last night, opened the bubbly, and watched the ball drop.
Advent is the start of our journey through the Church Year. It is a journey with Christ. A journey starting with his birth in the manger in Bethlehem, on to his baptism, on to his teaching and healing. We go with him to the mountain of transfiguration when he turned his face to Jerusalem. We come down with him and go with him to Jerusalem, through Good Friday and his death, on to Easter and his resurrection, and to his Ascension. In that practice of the Church Year, going through week by week and remembering his story, we are learning about his life more deeply. We, who are the Body of Christ, take time, half a year, going through Christ’s life so we can understand more deeply what it means to be his Body, to align our own bodies with his body.
We start that journey now on this First Sunday in Advent. The word advent means arrival, but not just any arrival. We don’t talk about the advent of the relatives at Thanksgiving. The word advent is for the kind of arrival that is big and transformative, like how historians talk about the advent of television that changed the world. Advent is that big sort of arrival. The arrival that we are preparing for during Advent is an even bigger one than that, and that is the advent, the arrival of Christ into this world, the Incarnation of God that changed everything.
During the season of Advent we are preparing for that arrival, but there is not just one Advent. There are three Advents going on, all at the same time. The first is what we might call the Historical Advent, the coming of Christ into the manger at Bethlehem. That’s the one most of our attention is focused on as we get ready for Christmas and all the wonderful ways we prepare by decorating our homes and our church with all the greens and decorations and the tree. We get all the gifts and cook all that wonderful food. All of these preparations are to celebrate Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. That is the first Advent, the Advent of History.
The second Advent we might call the Advent of the Future. That is when Christ will come again in great glory. Sometimes we call this the Second Coming, although you might get the idea from later in this sermon that the phrase Second Coming probably isn’t quite right for us to use. But it is a coming that is in the future. Your big theological term for the day is eschatological. The eschatological coming is the one way out there. This is the stuff of apocalypse and end times, but not the Rapture. Rapture is a popular word, but it is an idea that is less than two hundred years old, understood by a small minority of Christians who have very loud voices. People think the Rapture is a part of historic Christianity, but it is not. The fear created around Rapture theology is not what we are talking about when we talk about the eschatological second coming of Christ. Rather than calling it the Advent of the Future, I would like to call it the Advent of Hope. Because that is what we are looking towards, the moment when Christ will come back to restore, to make new, to bring justice where there has been injustice, to bring healing where there has been brokenness. That is what we are preparing for in Advent so that we can, in the words of the Eucharistic prayer, prepare for Christ to come without shame or fear. The eschatological Advent is not an advent of fear, it is not to scare us, it is meant to bring us hope. So we have the Advent of History, which brings us so much joy, and the Advent of the Future of hope.
The third Advent is the Advent of the Present, the Advent of Now, the arrival of Christ into our lives today. We are preparing ourselves, our hearts, our minds, and our souls, to recognize when Christ shows himself to us now. Keep awake, the Gospel said, not just for the eschatological Advent, but keep awake because right now Christ is coming into your life. We need to work to recognize him.
These three advents are not unrelated to each other. For instance, in a lot of the eschatological literature, the apocalyptic literature, it talks about Christ being a stranger. The reality is that we find Christ in the stranger today. In every person we welcome, Christ is present in them. The three Advents are all talking to each other. We celebrate and learn and find joy in the history, and we look forward in hope to the future because it is teaching us how to recognize Christ right now in the vulnerable, recognize Christ in justice and healing work, and recognize Christ in the person sitting next to you in the pew today. We are learning how to recognize Christ in all things.
So, my friends, this Advent season, decorate your homes, get the gifts ready, bake those cookies as important preparations for Christmas. But also prepare your hearts and minds and souls for the Advent of hope for the future, and recognize Christ’s presence with you right now, in this very moment, today.
AMEN.
Imagine you are in Palestine when Jesus was proclaiming the Good News. You are not in one of the cities or large towns. You most likely haven’t ever seen a king or a Caesar. You know the stories of King David and King Solomon. They were heroic men, but flawed. In their kingdoms there was suffering and hunger, greed and deceit. One day, a stranger comes to your village and there’s much talk about it, about his teachings and his deeds. You go to the synagogue in curiosity, and you hear him teach about the kingdom of God. It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. And you leave the synagogue perplexed at its meaning.
what I hope to offer you today, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is a way to engage the Scriptures that both acknowledges the difficulty of the task, and also offers guidance and hope.
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul prays that the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.“ What is that hope to which we’ve been called? For that matter, what is hope?
Faith, hope, and love. This is the trinitarian theme of our pledge campaign this year and our recent adult education series. Over our three-week session, we gathered for Evening Prayer, a simple shared meal, and explored faith, hope, and love in art, cooking, bible study, or story sharing. Over the past few Sundays, Bingham’s sermons have talked about faith.
The last few week’s gospel lessons have dealt with the connection between power and riches, what we value in our lives, and what is valuable in the eyes of God. Last week we heard the confusing parable of the unjust steward and how he sought to take care of himself once he was fired, and the week before, we heard about the 99 sheep who were left behind while the shepherd went in search of the one lost sheep, and the women who searched and swept the whole house in search of the one lost coin out of the ten, and when she found it invited her friends to a party to celebrate. Today we continue with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
"Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” This morning’s gospel is part of a larger discussion in Luke on the meaning of money and wealth.
What Jesus reminds us, is that with God it’s not about rules, but about compassion and love. As our presiding Bishop Michael Curry is fond of saying, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” To Jesus, there are no barriers, no qualifications, no “ins” or “outs” for receiving the mercy and healing of God. Nope. That’s not how God works. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.
There is a theological concept called the Missio Dei. It is a Latin term and means the mission of God. It is a theological idea that we, the church and members of the church, do not have a mission in this world. This goes against everything we learn about corporate culture that defines an organization’s mission. We have no mission in the world. God has a mission and we can choose to join it or not.
But the part we have for today is Chapter 11. Right before this chapter, there is a line that says, “we are not those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” Salvation comes through faith. This is a profound and important statement that the preacher makes. It is also a statement that raises a lot of questions. One is what is faith, and that is our reading for today. We get the answer to the question, what is this faith in which we find our salvation.
We all sit under trees we didn’t plant. We all drink from wells that other people dug. It was the faithful Christian Episcopalians in Salem who provided the structure so that as I grew up I would learn and have my faith strengthened. It is thanks to the giving and work and faithfulness of previous members of St. Mary’s going back 170 years that there is a structure here for a faithful community to strengthen my faith, and uphold and support me, Dorothy, our children and our grandchildren in their faith. For all of that I am most grateful.
We find in today’s Gospel one of the most familiar Biblical stories of hospitality. Lazarus may have come home early to let his sisters know that Jesus and his friends were coming for dinner. Mary and Martha tidied up the house and began dinner preparations. The guests arrived as one sister prepared the meal and the other sister welcomed the guests and shared in the pre-dinner conversation. This is a scene very familiar to us, especially those of us who have homes without open concept, where one or more are preparing food in the kitchen and the others are in the living room making lively conversation so the guests feel at home.
Now I’m not stupid, and I am human. As committed as I am to the Great Commandment, as hard as I try to live into our Baptismal Covenant, I know I don’t treat everyone I encounter in an equally loving manner. But I have noticed over the years, if I just allow myself to be open to it, situations arise when the invisible barrier that may have existed between me and someone else disappears.
Listen to Sharon Rodgers entire sermon.
With everything that’s been going on in our world lately, and that continues to go on with no clear end in sight, today’s prophetic words from Isaiah about the power of joy and celebration in the midst of anger, pain, and suffering, hit home. In times of despair, it’s not as simple as, “Just believe!” Or, “Have faith!” Or, “Pray harder!” In fact, those sayings do more harm than good.
I don’t know about you, but it feels like love is in short supply these days. Two years of a pandemic made us all grumpier, a little shorter with each other, it’s harder to pull that love together. We realize this was going on before the pandemic. If you read history, you know it has always been this way. Love has always been in short supply, even among those of us who profess to follow a God who is love
this grace and mercy, the restorative, healing power of Jesus, does not discriminate. It is available to all. In Jesus, our binary distinctions and separators, our groupings of ins and out, in fact ALL dichotomies, are done away with. None of that has any effect on the love of God for all of God’s beloved children, for we are all one in the love of Christ.
This morning I’m going to try to articulate a way of looking at Pentecost that’s maybe a little different from what you’ve heard before. But first, let’s look briefly at the history and significance of the feast.
Pentecost has its roots in the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Jews celebrate Shavuot fifty days after the first day of Passover. This year is a little bit unusual in that the first day of Passover and Easter were on the same day, which means our Jewish friends are also celebrating Shavuot today.
Listen to Dr. Loren Crow's entire sermon for Pentecost.
I am tired, but it is more than that. I am weary. Weary of this world. Weary of COVID, weary of politics, of arguing, and disrespect. Weary of war. Weary of horrible news and images, senseless violence. I am weary. Before I became a priest, I taught French and Spanish
Whatever metaphor you want to use for the Church, for example, the Church is like the solar system and the star we orbit around is love. Or the Church is a building being constructed and the plumb line of our life is love. Or you can say that we are a symphony and the tuning note of the orchestra is love. We are meant to focus on love. We can disagree on all the other stuff; we can work through it, but love is the center. That is what we are tying to do today in this community. We are tying to be that community of love.
Listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter.
Grant that when we hear God’s voice, we may know who's calling us, and then follow. Like animals who know their caregivers, or children who know their parents’ voices, like siblings, friends, or lovers who instantly turn at the sound of their names and the unique voices of those speaking, Jesus lovingly and longingly calls out our names, beckoning us into relationship with God.
At this point John includes the strangest detail that I can't get out of my mind. It says that Simon Peter and the beloved Disciple had a foot race. Now, we live in Track Town USA, it's marathon Sunday, so we can understand why they would want to have a foot race in that moment. Why not? But why include the detail in the telling of the story all those years later?
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the third Sunday of Easter.
We have converted our "The Way of the Cross" video to audio to assist you in walking through the stations in our church.
It is with that understanding of the importance of reconciliation that we come to our Gospel. We hear the words of Jesus when he says to love your enemy. Striking, shocking words "to love your enemy". Jesus says that because he knows, he understands how vitally important the work of reconciliation is.
Click “Read More” to read Bingham’s entire sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany.
Over the past few weeks we have been hearing a good bit about call, God's call to us. Two weeks ago we prayed in our opening Collect to follow God's call: Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Then we went on in our Epistle to hear Paul talk about different calls we might have. Some are called to be apostles, some are called to be teachers, some are called to healers, etc. all with the idea that there are different calls within the church and are all an important part of the Body of Christ.
Listen to or read Deacon Nancy Crawford’s entire sermon by clicking “Read More”
The first of the two recommended readings from the Old Testament is today’s reading of Jeremiah’s call from God. And while my classmate, Tracey and I, at our ordination to be deacons, would have preferred a Scripture reading of a young girl answering God’s call, we found Jeremiah’s humble reluctancy fitting to our calls to ordained ministry, where we, too, each felt like an unprepared child.
Our first reading today comes from the Book of Nehemiah. We do not hear much from the Book of Nehemiah in the three year Sunday lectionary. I'm pretty sure, although I did not double check this, that this is the only Sunday we get a reading from Nehemiah in the lectionary. I could be wrong about that, but I'm not far off. This is a very rare book for us to read.
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the third Sunday after Epiphany.
In today's reading, the sign at the wedding at Cana of Galilee, by lifting up the miracle that allows the party to continue, we see that God cares about our joy, about pleasure, about fun. All too often we think about religion as serious business. It is, but one of the things that God seriously cares about is joy.
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany.
To know someone’s name is a powerful thing, to recognize them, to see them and to acknowledge them. To know someone’s name is to be connected to them, to be in relationship. When we take the time to learn someone’s name and do our best to remember and pronounce it correctly, it shows that we value them.
We are at the threshold of a new year, at the beginning of something new. We also sense that we are at the threshold of a new world. It’s not just a new year, it’s a new era. And we are filled with trepidation.
The story of the epiphany is a threshold story. King Herod hears that the wise ones from the East have seen a new star rising, the star of the Messiah. Herod hears this and he is frightened, he is greatly disturbed, and all of Jerusalem with him. And we know from history, that when Herod was disturbed, he was dangerous. He killed all the innocents in an attempt to kill Jesus.
Listen to Chrstine's entire sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas.
Merry Christmas! Our Advent journey has come to its end. We have arrived in Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph to welcome the birth of their son Jesus. Like the Shepherds, we have come to the manger to see this thing that has taken place. Whatever preparations we need to get done during Advent in order to celebrate Christmas--time's up. It's here. What has been done has been done, what has not been done has not been done. It's time to let it all go and simply savor this moment.
Listen to Bingham's sermon for Christmas Eve
Today’s gospel story of two women coming together in their expectancy, of John the Baptist’s mighty in-utero kick at the sound of Mary’s voice, of the Holy Spirit filling Elizabeth inspiring her prophesy, is an amazing tale of two women realizing how God is at work in their lives. In this meeting, the older, much older Elizabeth finds herself in the same pregnant state as the younger, much younger, Mary. They are both, through miraculous means, pregnant. What could, what does this mean?
As the Gospels tell it, John and Jesus were second cousins, with Jesus being six months younger than John. The son of older parents who hadn’t expected to have a child by the time he came along, John was evidently a man who spent a great deal of time in the wilderness. Consequently at whatever point he felt called to become a forerunner of someone coming later, he didn’t go into the cities to urge people to repent and be baptized, but rather stayed in the wilderness in the region around the Jordan and let people come to him.
Our second reading today come from Paul's Second Letter to the Thessalonians and in it he says, "How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face." These words from Paul strike a different chord nearly two years into this pandemic. This chord resonates more profoundly than ever before.
We are very clearly divided, held captive by polarization and demonization by all sides. How will? How can this distance between us be bridged? When might we return to caring for each other, to listening, agreeing to disagree, and returning each person to the dignity they are due as people created in the loving image and likeness of God?
Good morning, friends. This time of year, as the trees are losing their leaves and going dormant, as Advent approaches, we have a few weeks in which we’re led to contemplate something we Episcopalians don’t think about much: “eschatology,” the doctrine of “last things.” Lest we be tempted to ignore this subject, the Collect reminded us that all holy Scriptures, even those we find uncomfortable, are written for our learning. So let’s read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.
We find joy knowing that none of us will be separated from the love of God, not even death can do that! And we still grieve, we mourn the loss of those who will no longer be physically present with us here on earth. In today’s gospel, Jesus is grieving the loss of his friend Lazarus. Twice John points out that Jesus was “greatly disturbed” and “deeply moved.” Jesus wept at the reality of his friend’s death. Even though he knew that Lazarus would live again, very soon in fact, he still felt the very real, biting pain of his leaving this world, and the waves of grief that it set in motion for Mary and Martha, family and friends.
Listen to Ryan's entire sermon for All Saints' Day.
"You see that very clearly whenever Jesus engages with scripture, he is engaged in questions of interpretation. My favorite story of Jesus interpreting scripture is the time that the Disciples were picking grain on the Sabbath. Jesus is criticized for his Disciples working on the Sabbath, which seems to be a clear violation of the rules, the laws of scripture. But Jesus has a different interpretation. It is definitely not plain meaning. It is a creative and playful engagement with scripture. While the critics are talking about the Sabbath, Jesus says do you remember the story about David?"
Listen to BIngham's sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
"Jesus says follow this way, the way of mercy. "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." Follow Jesus on the way of mercy, on the way of grace, on the way of love because that is the world view of God. That is the ordering of the world in which a little child can be taken and put in the middle as an exemplar, as Jesus did in our Gospel just a few weeks ago."
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost
We are called to follow Jesus’ example of servanthood. How do we do that here at St. Mary’s? We do it both subtly and overtly. We serve each other through maintaining our connections, knitting ourselves together in love. In love and care for one another, we serve. As simple as a call, an e-mail, text, a cup of coffee or tea, a walk, a hike, a few hundred stitches together on Wednesday morning as the quilt grows smaller and smaller on the frame. We do it through our many ministries of serving others in emulation of Jesus’ life and works of mercy, feeding, healing, dignifying those on the margins of society. Our Saturday Breakfast is legendary in the community and during this pandemic its tireless volunteers have not wavered even though they’ve been forced to change when, where and how they serve food, they continue to bring God’s love through feeding the hungry in our neighborhoods.
What a Gospel we just heard! The story of the camel, the rich man, and the eye of the needle. It's a tough one, and we might find ourselves asking, is Jesus talking to me? Is Jesus really asking me to sell everything I have and give it all to those who are living in poverty? We might find ourselves thinking, that's too much, Jesus. I can't do that. It's not realistic. I have too many responsibilities. Just no. And we find ourselves trying to turn our ears down a little bit and wait for something a little more palatable to come out of Jesus's mouth. If we do that, we're going to miss out on some really important things that Jesus wants us to explore. So why don’t we take a little time today and try to unpack this Gospel passage together.
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost.
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
I wonder if those asking Jesus this question really want an answer, or maybe they already have their answer but they want to see what shocking thing Jesus might say to make people angry with him again. In typical Jewish fashion Jesus answers their question with one of his own. It was a favorite technique of mine with high school language students.
Listen to Ryan's entire sermon for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost.
"What a story we have been given in our first reading from Numbers today. It is a story that profoundly resonates with me in this moment we find ourselves in the pandemic. The story takes place during that desert wilderness period, those forty years between their liberation from their slavery in Egypt and before they enter into the Promised Land. The Israelites have been wandering around for quite a while at this point and they find themselves kind of done with the whole experience. They’re tired of it. They are exhausted."
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost.
“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” Willing to yield. I’m NOT very willing to yield. In fact, I don’t care for it. Whether I’m driving somewhere or in another situation. I’m more naturally inclined to go, to take, to believe that I have the right away, the right answer, or the important thing to do or say, or place to be. I don’t want to yield. I want to be right. I am right! Right? Well, as my wife Stacey recently pointed out to me, sometimes I can be a bit SELF-righteous. What? It would seem that those who know us well, well, they really do know us well.
Listen to Ryan's full sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Now if that old schoolyard taunt is helpful to you, if it allows you to let an insult roll off your back like water off a duck, then please, please, please do not let anything that I am about to say take away the power of those words to protect you. When I was a kid, I found it very helpful to remember that expression that my teachers taught me when someone would say a mean thing or two to me.
But as I have gotten older I have found that that expression is not as helpful to me, because ultimately I find the expression rests upon something that is not true. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", as if sticks and stones, the physical things in this world, have power, but words don't have power? I don’t think that is right. Our faith teaches us about the power of words.
“Every generous act of giving…every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father or Mother of lights…” Every gift that we receive, every generous thing that we do for others, they all come from God.
Have you ever gotten’ or given’ the perfect gift? “Oh, wow! Thank you, it’s perfect! How did you know?”
Perfect for me or perfect for them, for this time, this occasion. And it’s not so much the thing we get or receive, but the attention that was paid to choosing it. The genuine care and listening, and the intimacy of the relationship that it demonstrates. A perfect gift, showing us how valued and loved we are. So it is with God. GOD IS GENEROSITY. Biblical scholar Peter Rhea Jones comments, “To be generous is consonant with the nature of God.” I am reminded of the Doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below, praise God above ye heavenly host, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
We sing out our praise, recognizing what we proclaim when we receive the gifts at the altar, “All things come of thee O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.”
Every generous act of giving, every perfect gift come from God, in fact, they ARE God.
Listen to the Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones' entire sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost.
"We live in highly anxious times. For those of us who read or watch or listen to the news, this week has been very difficult. Think about some of the anxious words we have read or heard recently. The planet is warming up, it is heating up, the ICP warns us again. Wildfires rage across the west. Oakridge prepares to evacuate; it is so close to us. Hospitals are buckling under Delta, ICUs are running out of beds. A man in Roseburg died this past week because there weren't enough beds in the ICU. Children's hospitals across the country are filling up. A devastating earthquake hit Haiti again. Afghanistan falls to the Taliban again, and refugees are desperately trying to flee the country. And all of these anxious words come after a year and a half of the pandemic which has worn us down and thinned our resilience. Resilience that might have already been frayed going into the pandemic in the first place."
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost.
"Happy Saint Mary’s day! Saint Mary, the namesake of the community where we worship, serve, and grow in faith. When you think of Mary, what images come to mind? What stories, pictures, music, poems, what words to describe her? Countless pieces of art have sought to portray Mary throughout the ages. What can Mary’s own words at her cousin Elizabeth’s house reveal to us about who Mary is and how God relates, and acts in our world today ?" Listen to Ryan's full sermon for Mary Sunday.
When we serve in the name of Jesus, we are not left alone. We are given what we need to sustain us in ministry. Like Elijah in the wilderness, who was overwhelmed enough to ask that he might die, God’s messenger said to him, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” Jesus is our nourishment, our bread for the journey. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” “Taste and see”, the psalmist writes. You will see. You will see.
Click “Read More” to read or listen to Deacon Nancy Crawford’s entire sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost.
Today’s Old Testament reading comes from the book of Exodus, the story of how God provided food for the Israelites as they made their way through the desert en route from Egyptian servitude to the land God promised to their ancestors. The story is part of a cycle of stories all gathered around the common theme of God’s provision for their needs during their sojourn to their new home. And these stories provided fertile soil in which later Jewish and Christian interpretations grew and thrived. This manna was not what the people expected. But if you’ll stay with me I’ll try to show you that God gives them what they really need, and that’s more than just a full belly.
Listen to Dr. Loren Crow’s entire sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost.
"Our Gospel story today is that well known tale of the feeding of the multitudes, that time when Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish, and was able to feed thousands of people. I would say that based on the conversations I have had with people over the years about this story, the primary interest, focus, attention, is on that miracle and how it was achieved. How was that possible? The Gospel doesn't actually say. It just says that the people were fed, and there was enough for everybody. Everyone was satisfied, and there were leftovers. But it doesn't say how this was achieved." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost.
Our new Curate, the Rev. Ryan Baker-Fones, preaches a sermon on the Gospel stories for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost.
In most of our readings today we hear about windstorms. Let's start with the Psalm. Psalm 107 is a poem about a series of catastrophes that people find themselves in: lost out in the desert, locked behind iron bars, near death's door, hungry and thirsty. In the section that we sang today they are out at sea, stuck in a windstorm. In each of these sections of the Psalm, after describing the disaster, God saves the people from whatever danger threatens them. Then the Psalmist says, "Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 4th Sunday of Pentecost.
"Our first reading today comes from the Book of Ezekiel. You probably know Ezekiel best from the story of the dry bones, that great vision that Ezekiel had of the valley full of bones, when the bones came back together bone to its bone, and muscle and sinew and flesh came upon them and the spirit of God gave them life. It was a vision of new life, a vision of resurrection, a beautiful vision of restored life for a people living in what felt like death." Listen to Bingham's full sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Pentecost
"Just as Jesus is gaining friends and followers, he is also gaining enemies, people who are not concerned about the danger of the crowd, but rather concerned about Jesus and the danger that he and his teaching pose. So they are going around saying things like, "We are not so sure about this Jesus guy and all the stuff that he is doing and saying. We are not really sure the spirit behind him is of God. Maybe it is a different kind of spirit--you know what I mean--an evil spirit." They are trying to sow the seeds of doubt in the people and to rile up the crowds against Jesus." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost.
"You know me. I love the Church Year. The Church Year has a shape to it, and when we allow that shape of the Church Year to shape our lives, it can draw us closer to God. It can draw us into holiness. There are so many beautiful things about the Church Year. Each season has a richness and meaning that can help form us. But the year is also beautiful in its larger overarching shape as we have been talking about the last few weeks." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for Trinity Sunday.
"Happy Pentecost! Today is the Feast of Pentecost, one of the three most important days of the Church Year. You have Christmas, you have Easter, and you have Pentecost, the Holy Trinity of Feast days. Pentecost is as important as the first two, although it doesn't quite get the celebration that they do, but for the Church it is just as important. Today is the day we often call "the birthday of the Church." What do we mean by that?" Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the Day of Pentecost.
"In one sense this seems like a throw away story. Why does it matter how they organized themselves when that organization would soon change? I think there is something deeper going on in this story. In selecting the replacement for Judas, no matter how short lived it would be, they were trying to repair that which was broken among them. Before the Holy Spirit can come down and empower them to do the work that God wants done, they need repair, healing, wholeness." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 7th Sunday after Easter.
“God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. God is in every act of love that we offer. Every time we are willing to love like Jesus did, God is there.”
Click “read more” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter.
“I carried the crozier to remind the youth that they had the power that day, that week, that year, to do something to give courage 40 years down the road.”
Listen to Bishop Powell’s entire sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter
"Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, says the gospel. Don’t you wish you were there? Don't you wish he was here, now, to open our minds to understand the scriptures? The bible, so central to our faith and worship, has been used to promote colonialism, genocide and war, racism, slavery and sexism, greed and hatred and disregard for the creation itself. Some find within it no redemption, and turn away. But we, guided by the Holy Spirit, and made one with the post-Easter Christ, find within it freedom and justice, truth and equality, and a world ruled by sacrificial love. We will either regard the Bible as some old relic or as the most precious pertinent thing in the world." Listen to the Rev. Ted Berktold's entire sermon here.
I want to give Thomas, the Doubter, a break this morning. Instead, I want to talk about Jesus’ words to the disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Listen to Bishop Diana Akiyama's entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter.
"This is not just a 2000 year old tale. It is breaking news, Good News. It is a living story. It is our story and it is happening right now in our midst." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for Easter Day.
We are meant to follow Jesus, not join Pilate. God's love, God's grace, and God's mercy are abundant and Jesus wants to draw us closer to those. The Passion is meant to draw us in and to reflect the ways that we have embodied different characters at different times in our lives.
"And now that it appears we’re approaching the edge of the desert, we’re beginning to see signs of green, what do we see on the horizon but Jerusalem, and the emotional rollercoaster of Holy Week. Do we even have the energy to enter the city? And what if the green we think we see is only a mirage, and this desert we’re in is simply going to go on forever? We are so tired, and even those of us comfortable with solitude are by now simply feeling lonely. Like the Greeks in today’s Gospel, we would so love to be able to turn to Philip and say, Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Listen to Sharon's entire sermon for the 5th Sunday in Lent.
"Today we again hear Jesus talk about the cross, although the reference may be a little bit opaque. Jesus says just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is a reference to the cross. Lifting up here is referring to him being lifted up high on the cross so that all can see him and be saved. As we talked a little last week, the cross was not just about the death of an individual, but it was a message to the wider community. Crucifixion was done very publicly, and part of that was lifting you up rather high in order to make it easier for everyone to see you. " Listen to the Rev. Bingham Powell's entire sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent.
"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?"
This is a rhetorical question Paul is asking today. If it had been a serious question, the answer could have been something like, look in the mirror, Paul. You are an excellent debater yourself. Many of Paul's arguments have withstood the test of time, afterall. Another serious answer to the question could have been
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Lent.
"Today is the second Sunday in Lent, 2021. Last year on this Sunday, I preached a sermon that talked about pilgrimage as a traditional Lenten practice. That was March first, and it was almost the last Sunday before we were all constrained to a level of solitude for which we were little prepared. I remember thinking, in the weeks after that sermon, that it would’ve been better to have preached on the way of the hermit as a Lenten practice. But we do our best, don’t we, given nobody can know the future. Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I feel as if the entire last year has been Lent. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing." Listen to Dr. Loren Crow's entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Lent.
"This year we heard Mark’s version of the story. Mark’s version is much shorter and much sparser than Matthew or Luke’s versions. Sparse, like the desert that Jesus entered. It only takes Mark two verses to tell the story. Matthew and Luke take six times as long to tell the story. In Mark’s sparseness, some of the wonderful details that we know and love, like the content of those temptations, and the clever dialogue between Jesus and the devil are missing. And yet there are gifts in the sparseness, as well. Sometimes in all the detail we can miss the forest for the trees, as the old saying goes. One of the things that Mark’s telling obviously brings out is where this story takes place in the larger narrative. It allows us to see the forest more easily." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the First Sunday in Lent.
"How is God being revealed to us in this time? What is God saying? How are we being transfigured? As our Presiding Bishop so often says, if it is not about love, it is not about God. The transfiguration that this pandemic brings does not have to be divine, but it can be. The difference is love. " Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the last Sunday after the Epiphany.
"God's word was incarnate in that manger in Bethlehem. That is what we celebrate every year at Christmas. At Epiphany we celebrate the way that truth, that reality, of the incarnation of God into this world was manifest to various people. Or, as that beautiful hymn we sang this morning put it, "God in man made manifest." This hymn so beautifully tells the very stories of Epiphany that we hear every year, of the people who had their manifestations, their epiphanies of God found in Jesus Christ." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.
"What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? To follow him on the way of love. This love that Saint Paul says is the only way to get through the challenges and the conflicts the community in Corinth is facing. This way of love that Jesus calls us to at this time also. This way of love that we need to get through these challenges that we face as a community, the political divisions, this pandemic, racial injustice. All of it can only be gotten through if we follow the way of love, love for our neighbor, love for the other, the way of love that Jesus came to show us." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany
“We also see that call to love in God's response to Jonah, because the story is also of God's profound love for Jonah, a love that is going to call him in the first place, a love that is willing to follow him out to sea and bring him back and save him when Jonah ignores God. This call of love calls Jonah a second time, and then the love that God has for Jonah is shown by his continuing to work with Jonah after he becomes obstinate and grumpy while waiting for God to destroy the city. There is a profound love that God has for Jonah that keeps pursuing him when Jonah isn't doing what God wants.” Listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Epiphany
"All of these readings are weaving together this image of love. All this scripture weaves together this complex image of love. Love is not sentimental. Love is not easy. But love is God’s vision for this world because it was in love that God made this world. We face many challenges as a community, as a nation, as a world, and as followers of Jesus, as followers of God in this way of love, we know that that way of love is the path we must keep on taking, even when it is hard. That is the path that God has called us to follow. Follow Jesus on this way of love." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
"When we are baptized, we are spiritually, but also physically joined to the Children of Israel escaping slavery, to the Children of Israel entering the Promised Land, and to Jesus himself at his baptism." Listen to Bishop Neff Powell's entire sermon for the first Sunday after Epiphany.
"The Magi are on the move. Today is the 10th day of Christmas, and the Magi continue their journey to Bethlehem. In my creche collection that I told you about and shared with you on Christmas Eve, about 15 of them include Magi. The Magi spend most of the Advent and Christmas seasons journeying around the house, searching for their respective creche scenes in the living room. A few of the toy ones peel off from the caravan from time to time, but most of them stay together as a group. There are a dozen groups right here on my bookshelf. They have made quite the detour to join us for today’s sermon. The Magi will return to their appropriate creches on Wednesday, January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, the day we commemorate and celebrate their arrival. Our American tradition is that the stockings and the presents come on Christmas Day from Santa. But that is not a worldwide phenomenon, even among Christians. " Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the second Sunday after Christmas here.
"Today’s reading from Isaiah speaks of rejoicing. The reading is taken from two consecutive chapters. If you don’t have the text in front of you, it’s hard for you to realize that, just from hearing the reading. In Chapter 61, verses 10 and 11, Isaiah rejoices in the Lord, for the Lord has clothed him with garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, like a bridegroom decked with garlands or a bride adorned with jewels. A garden springs up, and praise springs up from the nations. The Word of God, Jesus, is like those gifts, as fine as jewels, as fine as a beautiful garden, and worthy of our praise and rejoicing. We can acknowledge with gratitude that we have been given a wonderful gift from God. End of Chapter 61." Listen to Deacon Nancy's full sermon for the first Sunday after Christmas here.
"Theologically, the creche tradition is a beautiful visual representation of Incarnation. Yes, God became flesh in a particular time and place over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, but scripture reminds us, scripture teaches us that the Christ is not limited only to that one particular moment, place, and time. Christ is Incarnate in our particularities, as well. Christ is with us as a baby in Peru, or an infant in Kenya." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon here. To see all the creches he is talking about, you can watch the sermon in the Solemn service on our Christmas page: www.saint-marys.org/christmas
Christmas music played on two harps. By Patricia Lambert and Jane Allen. Arrangement by Jane Allen
Traditionally, our 5 PM Christmas Eve service includes a Christmas Carol Sing-Along before the service. This year, we made that sing-along virtual. Fred Crafts introduces each song. There is a bulletin on our Christmas page: www.saint-marys.org/christmas if you'd like to see the lyrics to sing along.
Listen to the Rev. Christine Marie's reflections on the readings for the 4th Sunday of Advent
"Today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and today, December 13th, is also Saint Lucy’s day. The Feast of St. Lucy is not a major feast day, so it does not take precedence over a regular Sunday service. This is not like Mary Sunday where we get special Mary readings and Mary prayers. It is not like All Saints Sunday with special All Saints readings and All Saints prayers. And even though today is not technically a major feast day, for some people it is pretty major. It is definitely an important feast day for them." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent
"Does anyone else feel a little bit of hope? Anticipation that an end to our horrors is nigh? We’re told that this end is coming, and we’re just now beginning to see it, breaking through the clouds like a single ray of sunshine. I’m talking about the Covid-19 vaccine, of course. We’ve learned to live with the daily messages of doom. We’ve secluded ourselves for reasons of hope, but too often with the result of hopelessness. We’re presented daily with sickness statistics and death statistics and dire warnings about wearing our PPE and staying home. But now, suddenly, it’s beginning to feel like our vigilance isn’t hopeless, and that is because of the “good tidings” we’ve heard about a vaccine that is coming soon. We’re still locked down, still washing our hands vigorously, still maintaining our distance from others, still doing what we need to do to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. But where just a month ago it felt onerous, now it feels like there’s an attainable goal, and that gives new energy. It’s the energy of expectancy;"
Listen to Dr. Crow’s sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent.
"Happy Advent! It is so good to be starting a new church year. I have heard many say over the past few months that they can’t wait for this year to be over. So I say, why wait for the solar year? Let’s go ahead. It’s a new church year, so let’s go ahead and say that this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year is over. That does not mean that the pandemic is over, of course, but it does seem that things will start looking up at some point this year. So let’s just go ahead and start in on that." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the first Sunday of Advent.
"my friends in Christ, I encourage you this day to set aside a little time, not just for feasting, not just for celebrating and relaxing and resting, but set aside some time to name those things for which you are grateful. Take the time to figure it out, name it, and offer up your thanks to God who is showering down love upon you, even in the midst of all that we face." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for Thanksgiving Day 2020.
"I want to start my sermon today with a story. It is a story about a priest named Marc Nikkel. Marc was one of my dad’s priests in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, although he was not serving in the geographic boundaries of the Diocese because he was a missionary in Sudan. Marc spent the better part of the last twenty years of his life in Sudan, going there initially in 1981 to teach at the Bishop Gwynne College, an Anglican Episcopal school. Along the way he felt a call to the priesthood and so returned stateside for some coursework and to get ordained. Then he returned to Sudan as a priest." Listen to the entire sermon here.
"Our worship life is full of Scripture. Beyond our worship life, how is it that we discern things in the Episcopal way? That is also deeply rooted in Scripture. We have the concept of the three-legged stool. The idea that in order to understand anything about faith, anything about God or what God wants us to do in this world, we need to look at that dialogue of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, that dialogue of our minds, the voices of our ancestors, and Scripture. There are debates among Episcopalians as to whether all three of those are equal, or does Scripture have a bigger role. But however you look at it, Scripture is critically important." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost here.
We live in highly anxious times. That might be something of an understatement for 2020. There is so much to be understandably anxious about right now in this year. One of the side affects or outcomes of anxiety can be hopelessness. It is easy to allow anxiety to sap us of our hope. “Hope, that thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” as Emily Dickinson so beautifully put it. Hope is important to us. We need hope to keep moving forward, especially when times are so difficult. We need hope, and anxiety is the enemy of that hope.
Listen to Bingham's entire sermon here. If it's meaningful to you, share it with a friend.
Listen to Sharon Rodgers' sermon for All Saints Day and be sure to listen through to the end to hear the hymn she quotes, hymn #293 "I sing a song of the saints of God"
In his sermon for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, the Rev. Bingham Powell, focuses on the Epistle. How do we act in love towards each other at this time?
In his sermon for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, Bingham talks about the importance of offering gratitude.
On this 19th Sunday after Pentecost Bingham reflects on the readings for the day and our annual pledge drive. Also, three parishioners share a bit about how they are connecting to God and each other during this pandemic.
"Most of our readings today have a common image of a vineyard. We see that in the Isaiah reading, in the Psalm, and again in the Gospel. Each of the authors of the different readings use the image a little bit differently, but fundamentally at the core of the image of the vineyard is the question of stewardship." Listen to BIngham's sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost.
Paul says, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” This passage, of course, is so consistent with the Gospels. It is so consistent with Jesus’s teachings on loving your neighbors as yourself, his teachings in the Beatitudes, his teachings in washing the Disciples’ feet. It resonates with his very life. Paul goes on in this passage to say that looking not to your own interests, but to the interests of others is the mind of Christ." Listen to Bingham's entire reflection in this audio recording of his sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost.
On this 16th Sunday after Pentecost, our guest preacher, the Rev. Libby Bagioni, reflects on the story of Jonah, ideas of fairness and justice, and how this relates to our current time.
In this sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, Bingham digs into a passage from today's Gospel reading: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”
In this sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost the Rev. Bingham Powell reflects on Peter's journey with Christ and what lessons we can take for our own journey with Christ.
This special sermon is a collaboration of the Rev. Bingham Powell and the Rev. Christine Marie. Bingham and Christine reflect on Mary as they give us a visual tour of the Mary icons, images, and statues in our church. You can see the sermon in our August 16, 2020 recorded service which can be found here: http://www.saint-marys.org/archived-services
What lessons can we take from the story of King Solomon's request for wisdom? A sermon by the Rt. Rev. Neff Powell.
This sermon references some images that Bingham points to in the video version. To see those images, please view the recorded service at www.saint-marys.org
This sermon references some images that Bingham points to in the video version. To see those images please view the recorded service at www.saint-marys.org/archived-services. "As I hear the parable of the sower, I think about God’s love and how abundant God’s love is, that God is willing to waste it. God is so utterly inefficient. God would not get through Business School because God is willing to waste seeds, is willing to waste love on paths and on rocks and on thorny places, even though it is not necessarily going to take root and thrive." Listen to the entire sermon here.
"How are you holding up right now? My usual question is, how are you, but that seems like such an inappropriate question right now. Stressed? Yes. Is it hard? Is it challenging? Difficult? Saying how are you holding up seems to acknowledge that I know this is difficult, I know this is stressful. But, within that context, how are you holding up under the weight of the burdens of this time?" Listen to the whole sermon here.
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost "Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” In the Gospel today Jesus is getting at an idea he is going to flesh out further later in the Gospel. It is the idea that in other people we can find Christ. In this section it is all about welcoming Christ in the stranger, and that in the act of hospitality you are welcoming Christ." Listen to Bingham's entire sermon here.
Sin. We don’t like to talk about it very much. And I get that. I don’t like to talk about it very much. It makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes feelings of guilt and shame might start rising within us as we think about what it is we have done wrong. We might get defensive. It just seems easier to avoid even thinking about our sin than dealing with it. Additionally, we have a history of misnaming sin, of calling things sin that aren’t, and not calling things sin that are. And sometimes in that misnaming we have weaponized sin language to use it against people, abusively, hurtfully. Dare I say, sinfully. So it is easier not to talk about it.
We are now in the 2nd half of the church year, which is commonly called Ordinary Time. The 1st half of the year is shaped by Jesus’s life. It is marked by a series of fasts and feasts that commemorate the moments in Jesus’s life, from his birth to his death and resurrection and ascension. The 2nd half of the year is different. It is not shaped by Jesus’s life, it is not marked by fasts or feasts. Now there are feasts that happen along the way, but they are different. In the 1st half of the year the feasts are the point. We move from feast to feast to feast to fast to feast. The whole time is marked by those things. But in Ordinary Time the feasts happen on the side. They are incidental. They don’t really affect what we are doing in this time.
"We Sing to the Lord a New Song" is Dorothy Bergquist’s beautiful setting of Psalm 149. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist.
Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.
"The Lord Shall Give Strength" is Dorothy Bergquist’s powerful setting of Psalm 29. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist.
Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.
"I Sought Your Help, O Lord" is one of Dorothy Bergquist’s uplifting settings of Psalm 34. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist.
Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.
"Be Pleased, O God" is Dorothy Bergquist’s beautiful setting of Psalm 70. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist. Accompanied by one of St. Mary’s choirs. Listen to this piece here or on our podcast.
Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.
"Lord, Let Your Face Shine" is Dorothy Bergquist’s setting of Psalm 119. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist. Accompanied by one of St. Mary’s choirs. Listen to this piece here or on our podcast.
Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.
One of the many things I love about our particular way of following Jesus in the Episcopal Church is the emphasis on the church calendar or the liturgical year. We are one of several traditions that follow the ancient practices of the church year. It may seem a bit esoteric at times, maybe a bit insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I think it is a valuable tool to help us in our faith and in our lives as we try and follow Jesus.
The church year gives us some structure, and one of the things it does is take us on a journey with Jesus through his life every year. The first half of the liturgical year is walking with Jesus through his life. It begins at Christmas, when Jesus was born in that manger in Bethlehem, and it continues on as we walk with him as he grows up, as he is baptized, as he calls his first disciples. We listen to him as he teaches and preaches. We watch him as he heals. We walk with him up the mount of Transfiguration and we walk back down that mount on the journey toward Jerusalem. Every year on this journey with Jesus we spend forty days out in the desert wilderness of Lent, and every year we walk that very special final Holy Week, the last week of his life. We are there, waving our branches, shouting out “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna,” as Christ triumphantly enters into Jerusalem. We are there, walking with him, eating the Last Supper, washing feet, praying in the Garden. And there we are in the sorrow, the grief, the pain of Good Friday as he tragically exits Jerusalem, carrying his cross. We sit in the discomfort and the grief and the confusion of Holy Saturday. We walk with the women down to the tomb on that Easter morning in the darkness of the hour, the darkness of their hearts, and the darkness in our own hearts as well.
And we see that darkness transformed into light. We see the sorrow transformed into joy. “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning,” the psalmist says, and we experience that every year in our journey with Jesus as Easter comes and we celebrate that he is raised. Throughout Easter we learn what it means that he has risen. We walk to Emmaus with him. We’re locked in the room in our fear with the other disciples that Jesus enters. It is a journey with Jesus.
This past Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension, and today in the first reading from the Book of Acts we hear about this Ascension. The Ascension is that moment when the journey ends. We watch with the disciples, looking up into the skies, watching the end of the journey.
For me, Ascension doesn’t make a lot of sense on its own. All of the meaning of Ascension comes when we look back at this journey that we have been taking, the arc of Jesus’s life. Jesus, the Incarnation of God in this world returns back to God at the end. “Love came down at Christmas,” the old hymn says, and now that love is returning. In between those two moments we see love wrapping itself around us: That love that was taught, that love that healed, that love that was transfigured, that love that went down to the depths of darkness that we experience in this life, that love that died, that love that rose, that love that surrounds us and wraps us in care and comfort and support and peace for whatever we face in life.
Now we find ourselves having gone through this journey with Christ, from his birth to his ascension, the first half of the church year. And we are at a pivot point right now between the two halves of the year. What the church calendar does for us is that we move from this time, which has been following Jesus’s life chronologically, and we will pivot into this moment called Ordinary Time.
In Ordinary Time we take all this stuff that we have been learning, this journey that we have been walking, and apply it to our ordinary lives. We take Jesus’s life into our lives and the day by day living that we do. It is a brilliant and beautiful structure that the church year, the church calendar gives us. We focus on Jesus’s life, the Body of Christ in this world, for half the year. And then we take the other half of the year to say that we are now Christ’s Body in this world. At Pentecost, the beginning of the second half of the year, the Holy Spirit is going to come down, which we will hear about next week. The Spirit is going to send the disciples out into the world to be Christ’s Body, to embody that love that came down at Christmas, to embody that love that taught and healed, to embody that love in the day to day realities that we experience. The church calendar reminds us that it is not just faith in an esoteric sense, but it is the faith embodied in our living.
“Do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you,” First Peter says. In the middle of this fiery ordeal that we find ourselves, how do we take Christ’s love, how do we take that life of Christ and embody it ourselves? That is the question that Ordinary Time will ask of us.
How do you do it, day in and day out? How do you embody Christ in this world? As we begin this second half of the church year, it is time to find out.
AMEN
Stones. Stones play a minor but important and recurring role in the Bible story. Think about the Tower of Babel and how people learned to make brick and stones to build that great tower. Think about Jacob out in the wilderness who took a stone as his pillow one night and dreamed about the gateway of heaven and a ladder with angels ascending and descending. The next morning he took that stone pillow, stood it up on its side and poured oil over it to commemorate the place and the occasion. Think about those two stone tablets of Moses that had those ten little rules, the Ten Commandments, written on them, were broken, and then two more stone tablets to write them again. Think about that rock that God commanded Moses to strike with his staff and bring forth water to quench the thirst of the people out in the desert. Think about the twelve stones that Joshua took when they crossed into the Promised Land, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, to commemorate and mark that significant moment.
Think about the times stones are used violently. Think about the laws and punishments that allowed stoning. Think about the story we heard today when St. Stephen was stoned by the people. Think about David, taking little stones and a slingshot to defeat Goliath. Think about the stones that Solomon took in order to build the temple. Think about the stone when Ezekiel talks about the heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh in that beautiful vision of renewal. Think about John the Baptist and the way he warned us not to rest on our laurels, because God can make new followers out of stone. Think about Jesus saying that if the people don’t cry out, the stones will cry out. Think about that stone that covered the tomb, and the stone that was rolled away on the third day.
Stones play an important role. One of those moments is when Jesus talks about himself being the stones of the temple. “Tear down this temple and in three days I will build it back up.” How are you going to do that? It took forty years to build it. You’re crazy. And Jesus said, “You don’t understand,” because he was talking about himself as the stones of the temple. The temple, of course, was an important place. It was the place where Jesus and so many others went to pray and worship, because the temple was the place where God dwells. That was their understanding. But Jesus is saying that ultimately he is the place where God dwells. Not just the temple, which he did consider as important, but he is the place where God is fully dwelling.
In our second reading today from First Peter, we hear about Jesus being that living stone, the stone that was rejected. Then the reading goes on to say that you, too, are to be like living stones. You who are baptized into Christ, who is a living stone, means that you are living stones as well. You who are the Body of Christ are also the living stones, the dwelling place of God. It is a remarkable thing to think about. God is dwelling with you right now. The only question is, do we notice and recognize that God is dwelling with us in this very moment?
I’ve been thinking about stones a lot lately, thinking about those stones of the church, the brick walls that are such an important part of our faith. At St. Mary’s the stones are important. They are important in my life and my faith journey, the place where I was ordained, married, where two of my children were baptized, the place where my faith has been strengthened, the place where my faith has been renewed. I know it is the same for so many of you, because you have shared so many stories with me over the years about how St. Mary’s, the place, has been important in your faith journeys. You have shared stories of baptisms and weddings and funerals, and I have been with you in so many of those events there in that place. You have told me stories of ways your faith has been strengthened among the stones of that church, ways your faith has been renewed among the stones of that church. I long to be back there among those stones with you, worshiping God, growing in our faith, together in that place.
And yet, that is not possible for us at this time. So it is important to remember the truth that First Peter points us towards: that you are a living stone and God is dwelling with you right now. You don’t have to go down to those particular stones in order to find God or to be found by God. God is already with you even in this moment. God moments happen in the church, but God moments happen all the time if we learn how to recognize them, if we try to open the eyes and ears of our faith to see and hear the ways that God is already present with us, with you, a living stone.
So, my friends in Christ, in this moment when we can’t be down at the church among those important stones, we can still find God dwelling with us. In fact, God is there with you, right now. We will return someday. We will have new opportunities to grow in faith, to worship God among those stones. But in this particular moment it is a time to focus on the ways God is always with you in the living stone of your life.
AMEN
The lectionary is the list of scripture readings that are assigned for any given week, and it has lots of purposes. One of them is to be sure that we get a lot of diversity of scripture readings that give us a wide array of Biblical stories and prevents us from focusing in on those favorites of ours. So it is surprising to me, at least, that we were given this psalm today because we just heard this psalm a few weeks ago on the 5th Sunday in Lent. Although it is strange, I think it is really quite appropriate because this is a rather Lenten Easter, isn’t it? We may not be fasting from chocolate anymore, but we are fasting from something so much more important, the Holy Eucharist. We are still walking in the valley of the shadow of death, not just the valley of Lent. With this virus, the valley of the shadow of death seems like an appropriate and powerful image to understand this moment we are living in. Very few of us have been directly touched by this death, and yet the shadow it casts is affecting everybody and disrupting our lives profoundly, perhaps in a permanent way. Things that are happening right now might affect the trajectory of the rest of our lives. This pandemic has a rather far-reaching shadow. So what an appropriate psalm for this moment, for this valley that we are walking in.
Psalm 23 is a beloved psalm of so many, for good reason: those cadences, the language, the beautiful images. Did you know that Psalm 23 is so popular and beloved that the Prayer Book, which has every single psalm in it, includes it in three different translations? It has the Prayer Book translation, which is at the back of the Prayer Book with all the other psalms. It also has the 1928 Prayer Book translation, and the King James version. The phrase, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”, is probably one of the most beautiful and profound sentences in the English language. Those images of the green pasture and the still waters can comfort our souls and calm us down when we are anxious. It is such a profound and beautiful psalm and a most appropriate psalm for today on this Good Shepherd Sunday.
What I find really interesting about this psalm is that is a very rich psalm as you go deeper and deeper into it. One of the most interesting things about it is that although we think about it as a shepherding psalm, a pastoral psalm, something changes at the end of it. There is the image of the table being set in the presence of enemies. That is not a shepherding image. One does not lay out a feast in the middle of your enemies when you are a shepherd. This is rather a royal image, along with other parts of the psalm: anointing of the head with oil is what is done for kings. So while the psalm begins with the shepherding image, it ends with a royal image.
There is this one moment in the psalm where it all shifts: the part that says Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. The word rod can have multiple meanings. It is the word that you would use for the shepherd’s club to protect the sheep from the predators, but it is also the same word you would use for the royal scepter. In that moment the psalm shifts from the shepherd image to the royal image. It makes that old classic hymn, The King of Love My Shepherd Is, a profound version of Psalm 23 because it captures right at the beginning the dual imagery of shepherd and royal of this psalm. It is a fascinating juxtaposition of images because shepherds are low down on the scale of social and class status, while kings and queens are right at the top, yet both are taken and put together in this profound way to reveal something so important and valuable about our God. For our God is both: that Shepherd who tends us and cares for us, who knows us by name and whose voice we recognize. It is a very intimate relationship between a shepherd and a sheep, and yet God is also that monarch who has power and control. When we are going through the valley of the shadow of death, it is important to hold up both of those images, both of those truths and realities of our God. Our God is a God who is in control. Our God is a God who has the power to care for us, and our God is a God who loves us and cares for us, not just have the power to do it. Our God knows each one of us by name and is concerned for our well being.
That is the God we have, the God who is both monarch and shepherd. The God who has control in this moment when it feels like everything is out of control. There is our God holding steady, holding that scepter, holding that staff, safe and secure, stable and steady. And our God is that Shepherd, who cares for us, who is protecting us and moving us along with that rod and that staff. Our God is both. So as we walk through this valley of the shadow of death we remember these beautiful words, these profound words of our God who loves us more than we can ask for or imagine, of our God who, in the midst of everything that is changing and seems so uncertain and unstable, is stable and steady in the middle of it.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
AMEN
Poor Thomas, saddled with that nickname “Doubting Thomas”, and for what? Wanting the exact same things the other disciples got? It doesn’t seem very fair. He finds himself in a remarkably similar situation. He has just heard the news that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, but he doesn’t quite believe it. He wants something more. That is the same situation the other disciples found themselves in. As we heard last week, Mary Magdalene had had the experience. She had seen him, she had touched him, and she went and told the others. They didn’t believe her. Luke said it sounded like an idle tale. It is only when they themselves have the encounter in the locked room that we heard about today, that they come to believe.
Thomas is in the same situation. He has heard the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead, but he doesn’t come to believe it quite yet. He wants something more, just like the others. Now the others are not called Doubting Peter or Doubting Beloved Disciple. Only Thomas, for some reason, got the name Doubting Thomas.
It is really unfair when you think about the larger story and the other times Jesus shows up and we learn more about him. Think about just a few weeks ago on the 5th Sunday of Lent when we heard the story of the raising of Lazarus. In that story we heard that Lazarus was sick, but Jesus did not go to heal him. Then Lazarus died, but Jesus did not go right away to be with the family. Jesus waits a couple of days and then says they are going to go to Bethany, which is about 2 miles away from Jerusalem, and see Lazarus’s family. The disciples say that are not so sure about that. It is rather dangerous for us there, since they want to kill you. That is the reason we left last time, so it is not a very safe option. But Jesus says this is what we are going to do. It is important. And Thomas says, OK, then, we will go with you so we can die with you. That doesn’t sound like a Doubting Thomas. That is an act of faith. Courageous Thomas sounds like a better nickname than Doubting Thomas.
I don’t think it is a very fair name, especially if we look where the story goes as we heard in the Gospel today. When Thomas does have his encounter with Jesus he sees him, but did you notice that Thomas doesn’t actually follow through with every thing that he said he needed to do in order to believe? That doesn’t seem like much of a skeptic to me. Thomas says I need to see him, and I need to touch him, but when Jesus shows up, did you notice that Jesus offered, but Thomas doesn’t actually do it? Caravaggio, in that great painting, got it wrong. Caravaggio has Thomas’s finger in Jesus’s wound, but when Jesus offers, Thomas’s response is simply, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus says that Thomas has come to believe because he has seen him. If Thomas was a real skeptic, a real doubter, he would have at least done what he said he needed to do. He probably would have come up with a few more things, a few more demands of Jesus to test and be sure this was really happening. This is not a story of a doubter, it is a story of a man full of faith. Faith-filled Thomas sounds like a better nickname for him.
The Gospel reading today is all about belief. How do we come to believe? For Thomas, he came to believe because he heard the story and because he saw, but he didn’t need his other senses to verify it. That was sufficient for him. Jesus says blessed are those who did not see him, but believe. The Gospel writer says this is why I wrote the book, so you would come to believe when you hear these stories, whether you have an experience or not. The Gospel does not say one way is better than the other. It does say blessed are those who do not see, but it does not say cursed are those who need more. It simply says that is good, too.
All the different ways we come to believe are all valid, they are all valuable and important. Philosophers teach us there are four ways we come to know anything: through perception, that which we experience with our own senses, we see, touch, taste, or smell. We also come to knowledge through memory, that which we bring up from our memories. We come to knowledge through inference, that which we can reason out. And we come to knowledge through testimonies, the stories of other people. We could talk for hours on each one of these methods, but that is not the point of the sermon. Needless to say, they are all important, they influence each other, and for different people different ones have more weight for them in the life.
We see that Thomas needs not just the story, but some kind of perception. He needed to see. He thought he needed more than that, but he actually did not need that much more. He needed to see and hear Jesus to believe.
Different people have different levels of what they need. Some people need to see or feel or touch, to have their own personal experience of the divine or holy in their life. Other people are good with the stories that are passed on, hearing from other people who had those experiences. Some people need the inference, the logic, the reasoning to come to believe in God. Most of us need multiple of these. The reality is they are all influencing each other, no matter how much we think one is the one that really matters for us. They are all there. They are all important to varying degrees.
The question really isn’t how we know anything in this world, or more importantly for us about God. That is a question for each of us individually. The important thing is not how we learn something, but that we keep working at it, that we try and grow and learn and deepen our faith by getting to know God better, whether that is through experiences, or through sharing stories, or through reasoning, or through remembering. The question is not the way we do it, but the way we work growing our faith. The important thing is that we take that knowledge that is in our minds and let it seep down inside of us until it is in our heart.
Belief is not just about the mind, although it seems like that is what we mean these days when we say the word belief. Belief is a much richer word that means so much more. For instance, if I tell one of my kids I believe in you before they go on the soccer field or the concert stage, they don’t think, O good—dad thinks I exist. They think, dad has confidence in me, he trusts me. The word belief has these multiple layers of meaning. We want to have that kind of movement from the head into the heart, from a simple intellectual understanding down to that deeper level of confidence and trust.
Every week we recite the Creed, We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. For many of us, it is intellectual. Do I intellectually assent to this point or that point? But when we do that I think we actually miss the point because it is not that level of belief, it is the deeper belief, that trust and confidence level of belief. This is the God in which I put my trust. The Creed was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word literally means “give ones heart to.” We give our heart to the God who made this world. We have confidence and trust that we can give our heart over to the God that came down here to be one of us, to be with us, who taught us, who healed us, and so entered into our life that this God died for us on the cross, and rose to pull us back up into God. We give our heart over to this God that is continuing to work in this world as the Holy Spirit. We believe, we trust, we have confidence, we give our heart to the God who made the world, came into the world, and is still in the world.
We want to work at understanding and moving that from our mind down into our heart, moving it from what we understand to what it is we are willing to trust. That is the task that is always before us, a task that seems more important in this moment when everything seems so uncertain and so shaky, to know where it is that we can truly put our trust.
So, my friends, that is what I invite you to do. Work on your faith, whatever way you need to. Work on your faith, deepen your faith. Move it from your head into your heart, and learn to trust in the God who loves you, loves you enough to have made this world, loves you enough to have made you just the way you are. This God who loves you enough that he came down here to live our life and our death, and to rise for us. This God who loves us enough that he continues to work as the Spirit in this world. Put your trust in this God, today and always.
AMEN