Christ Church Gospel Reflections

Following Directions

2012-02-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Imagination is a powerful spiritual palette that allows us to see deeper into the ways God works in our world and in our lives. This Sunday we will hear a story about a leper who is also a beggar. His disease was considered contagious, not only physically, but spiritually as well and could result in being ostracized from the community. The meeting between Jesus and this unnamed leper is dramatic. The leper begs Jesus for mercy and says "If you choose, you can make me clean."

Before we see how Jesus responds to this leper’s request, let’s give this leper a past using one of the characters from the First Testament. There was a man named Job who was righteous in every way. In other words, he did what was considered right in the eyes of God and his community. He was admired, looked up to, and perhaps even envied by many of the people in his community. People came to Job when they were going through tough times and Job counseled them, perhaps telling them how they had come to suffer this or that disaster, illness, or personal loss of relationships.

While Job comes out of a different time and place, let’s let him be the leper who comes to Jesus begging for purification. Imagine the happy ending that the original story offered about Job was just a cover up, a Hollywood ending to make everyone feel like God takes care of his own even though he allows his own to be set up for attack and testing by God’s accuser, named Satan.

Job’s final affliction after the death of his children, the loss of his property, respect in the community and even the love and fidelity of his wife (she tells him to just go ahead and die), Job is afflicted with a skin disorder that is unsightly and festering. He is a man lost, abandoned, cast adrift in the world. When he challenges God to a one on one conversation, he is overwhelmed by the power and majesty of God and shouted into silence by the questioning of God.

So, let’s let Job be this leper that comes to Jesus. After all that has happened to him, he still is relationship with God. He believes that if God wants to heal him God will. Ages upon ages have rolled by and Job has borne the marks of his leprosy and lived on the outside of the community as a beggar. Those who knew him when he was considered a righteous man have all long since died and Job is simply that guy no one wants to be who lives on the outskirts of town.

He comes to Jesus on bended knees and asks for the healing of his leprosy. Jesus seems to be filled with emotion and the words used to describe his feeling could be either pity, or compassion or anger. It is a deep, guttural, aching, anguished shout, "I do choose. Be made clean!"

After years of abject suffering and rejection, Job is given a hearing and his prayer is answered. Talk about the patience of Job! Of course, this is my imaginary choice to make the leper of our story the character Job from the First Testament, but I think Job without a happy ending and searching for redemption works and gives the story more color and meaning.

Who was this leper whose faith left his healing up to the will of God and believed that Jesus somehow had the authority to say yes to him on God’s behalf? I don’t know, but I do know that this leper failed to follow the strict and plain command that Jesus gave him about going to the priests and not telling anyone about what Jesus had done for him.

Perhaps we have all been healed by God in many, many ways and yet have not been as enthusiastic in spreading the word as this leper. I wonder if Job would have followed Jesus’ instructions. I wonder how anyone who has been living on the margins of community would make their way back into the very communities from which they had been excluded.

The leper who disobeyed Jesus spread the word about Jesus healing him rather than going to the authorities to be officially welcomed back into the community as Jesus had directed him to do. The result of the leper’s decision to spread the word about Jesus was that Jesus could not go to the very cities and villages to which he had hoped to go.

His ministry was conducted in the outskirts of cities, in the wilderness, in the margins. Perhaps the same thing has happened in our world today. Perhaps Jesus is still operating in the outskirts of culture and even religion. Those who tout Jesus in a triumphant way may make Jesus less and less available and accessible to the people who need God’s flesh and blood presence and love.

Job, what do you think?

Welcoming Starts with Healing

2012-02-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

Mark 1:29-39

Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Jesus found a home with Simon and Andrew in Capernaum. The home was open and welcoming, not just to Jesus, but to James and John the other fishermen, now called to be disciples. This sort of hospitality was not a new thing in Judaism. Such hospitality stretches back to Abraham who welcomed strangers into his tent with food and honor.

So Simon and Andrew were simply following what every faithful Jew would do in a similar circumstance. Abraham had welcomed strangers who turned out to be angels of Yahweh. Simon and Andrew welcomed Jesus who turned out to be the presence of Yahweh in human flesh and blood.

Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

Simon’s mother-in-law was part of his household. She must have been the mother superior of the home. It was this unnamed woman who, like the Holy Spirit, opened her home to strangers and friends alike. She had a fever which meant that she was not able to provide the leadership of welcoming for which she was, no doubt, know. Every home and community of faith needs a head welcoming person who organizes the family and community into action that results in the home expanding to include all who come through the door.

Simon’s mother-in-law was such a person. Is it any wonder that the disciples came to Jesus “at once” hoping that he would restore this very important person to health and service?

He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

Healing does not come to everyone of us who is ill. Sometimes we are sick unto death. What is happening in this Gospel reading is about restoring to health the welcoming one to not only this family, but to the whole people of the world. Simon’s mother-in-law becomes the sign of the Holy Spirit as the welcoming and healing presence of God being restored to health and vigor and service within the community. Watch what happens once she is healed.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.

The home of Simon and Andrew is thereby opened to the entire city. It becomes the place where hospitality and healing meet those in need. As we begin another year together at Christ Church, consider this miracle—the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law.

What healing has gone on at Christ Church that has set free the Holy Spirit to make our community of faith a place of welcome and healing?

What have you observed of this healing and how have you noticed that word is spreading of this being a place and community of welcome and healing?

What part have you played in this healing?

Have we invited Jesus to come and stay with us?

And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

This final passage is focused on Jesus ministry of exorcism—the casting out of demons. This talk of demons sound archaic in our day and age, but I would like to offer a different way of looking at it. Those in Jesus’ day and in our day know what a community torn apart by strife, division, anger, and violence look like.

What is the spirit of such a community that encourages such deadly consequences?

Jesus came and cast out this spirit of death and exclusion and disease of heart and soul. What was true then is true today.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

I would suggest that Jesus is a good model for praying. More importantly his prayer life, his daily communion with God that brought together heaven and earth is the very way God creates communities of welcome and healing. May we pray for the healing of the spirit of welcome and healing to continue to call us together and bring us through the door that leads to the presence of God.

Nightmare Judgment: Jesus, Twain, and Dickens

2011-11-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a nightmare? You know the kind of dream that leaves your heart pounding, your mind confused and fearful, and your body sweating when you wake up? If you have you have had such an experience you may be in a better position to understand our Gospel for this Sunday.

The ancients and modern day depth psychologists such as Carl Jung believe that dreams whether pleasant, benign, or fearful and seemingly malevolent offer a window into the human soul. The stories we tell and the way we live our lives also offer us a viewing the human soul, individually and corporately.

Mark Twain wrote a novel called The Prince and Pauper. Here is the plot summary of this tale of royalty trading places with an impoverished kid named Tom.

The novel begins with Tom Canty, an impoverished boy living with his abusive family in London. One day, Tom Canty and Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, meet and as a jest, switch clothes. While dressed in the pauper's rags, the Prince leaves the palace to punish the guard who knocked Tom down. However, the boys look remarkably alike and because they switch clothes, the palace guards throw the prince out into the street. The Prince fares poorly in London because he insists on proclaiming his identity as the true Prince of Wales. Meanwhile despite Tom's repeated denial of his birthright, the court and the King insist that he is the true prince gone mad. Edward eventually runs into Tom's family and a gang of thieves and Twain illustrates England's unfair and barbaric justice system. After the death of Henry VIII, Edward interrupts Tom's coronation and the boys explain, switch places, and Edward is crowned King of England. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_and_the_Pauper)

While based upon historical figures King Henry VIII, Jane Seymore, and Edward VI, Twain’s story is fictional, but offers a view of the human soul. The young prince who sneaks out of the royal palace and trades places with the young and fictional character, Tom Canty, finds himself living in poverty and temporarily unable to reclaim his royal place.

How would such an experience change the perspective of the future king of England? Would his experiences change his view towards the poor of the land? Would his eyes be opened to the plight of the poor or would he go back to his palace and forget everything he had seen and experienced?

This novel surely mirrors the life of Jesus as the prince, the son of the King of the universe, who becomes the least among us and dies on a Roman cross without ever ascending to any earthly throne. What did Jesus, the prince, take back to his father, the King? How will his experience change the world?

Our Gospel reading is called the Judgment of the Nations, but it is also like a very bad dream for those who are unable to see the needs of others who are hungry, thirsty, the strangers in our land, the naked, the sick and those who are in prison. The goats discover that all of those in need were, in fact, the Son of God, Jesus. It is important to note that those who are called the sheep also don’t recognize Jesus, but they do see people in need and respond to those needs.

This story, like Twain’s novel and our worst nightmares and stories, invites us to see the state of the human heart and soul. Are we able to see those in need? Are we able to respond to those in need? What are the consequences of being blind to the needs of others? Should it matter that God has chosen to be found in our neediness, not just the poor and needy of the world, but in each and every person? Is this nightmare of judgment and crisis a wake-up call to help move us to open our hearts to our own neediness and to the needy of the world? Can we look at the suffering and needy of the world and get a view of the state of our soul?

Does Jesus, like Charles Dickens in his novel , *A Christmas Carol, tell this story to allow us an opportunity to change and come alive and reconciled?

Is he giving us time to rediscover the tenderness and mercy that can open our eyes and bring us the joy of meeting the needs of others and awaken us to the human future if such changes do not happen?

Is this story meant to threaten us or to simply open our eyes to human need?

*”Dickens divides the book into five chapters, which he labels "staves", that is, "(song) stanzas" in keeping with the title of the book (he uses a similar device in his next two Christmas books, titling the four divisions of The Chimes, "quarters", after the quarter-hour tolling of clock chimes, and naming the parts of The Cricket on the Hearth "chirps").
The tale begins on Christmas Eve in the 1840's, exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge is established within the first stave as a greedy and stingy businessman, who has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. After being warned by Marley's ghost to change his ways (so that he may avoid a miserable afterlife like him), Scrooge is visited by three additional ghosts; each in its turn, and each visit detailed in a separate stave, who accompany him to various scenes with the hope of achieving his transformation.
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to the scenes of his boyhood and youth, which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several radically differing scenes (a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner, the family feast of Scrooge's near-impoverished clerk Bob Cratchit, a miner's cottage, and a lighthouse, among other sites) in order to evince from the miser a sense of responsibility for his fellow man. The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, harrows Scrooge with dire visions of the future if he does not learn and act upon what he has witnessed. Scrooge's own neglected and untended grave is revealed, prompting the miser to aver that he will change his ways in hopes of changing these "shadows of what may be".
In the fifth and final stave, Scrooge awakens Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart, then spends the day with his nephew's family after anonymously sending a prize turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. Scrooge has become a different man overnight, and now treats his fellow men with kindness, generosity and compassion, gaining a reputation as a man who embodies the spirit of Christmas. The story closes with the narrator confirming the validity, completeness and permanence of Scrooge's transformation.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol#Plot)

A PRIMER ON PRAYER

2011-11-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

Praying

Before we begin here are some questions to see what you may already know about prayer (True or False):
1. In the Episcopal Church most of our praying is done corporately (together on Sunday mornings).

2. Episcopalians are discouraged from praying as individuals.

3. Millions of people, both young and old, pray everyday.

4. You need to memorize prayers in order to pray properly.

5. Praying is talking to Jesus about what matters to you.

6. If your prayer is not answered the way you think it should be answered it means that God didn’t hear your prayer.

7. Prayer helps us make sense of the world in which we live while we draw close to God.

ANSWERS:1.T, 2.F, 3.T, 4.F, 5.T, 6.F, 7.T

PRAYING MADE SIMPLE (but not easy)

Much of the prayer of the Episcopal Church is corporate, that is to say we do it together and this is reflected in much of what you will say when you recite Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer. Yet there is another side to our prayer life, our own individual prayers, as we try to share in Christ's prayer to his Father, that his will be done, his kingdom come.

The advice we provide here was originally written for a children's book. However, whether you are a child, young person or an adult, prayer is easier than you might imagine! Millions of people of every age pray every day.

You don't have to know any prayers if you want to pray - in fact, words can often get in the way. Picture Jesus, and then say what is in your heart, what you feel.
REMEMBER!

God hears every prayer - but not all prayers are answered in the way we might expect or desire: we don't always pray for his will to be done!
ARROW PRAYERS can be offered to God anywhere, at any time.
But thankfully we don't live all our lives in moments of extreme crisis. What about day-to-day praying? We need to come closer to God, to experience His love for us and to try to make sense of where we are in the world. Prayer is the way we do this.

HOW TO START

USE YOUR HAND
Your fingers can be used to bring to mind different things to pray for.

THUMB

This is the strongest digit on your hand. Give thanks for all the strong things in your life, like home and family, relationships that support and sustain you.

INDEX FINGER

This is the pointing finger. Pray for all those people and things in your life who guide and help you. Friends, teachers, doctors, nurses, emergency services and so on.

MIDDLE FINGER

This is the tallest finger. Pray for all the important people who have power in the world, like world leaders and their governments, members of Congress and local city council members, our President and Vice President, the governor of California other world leaders and their governments.

RING FINGER

This is the weakest finger on your hand. It cannot do much by itself. Remember the poor, the weak, the helpless, the hungry, the sick, the ill and the bereaved.

LITTLE FINGER

This is the smallest and the last finger on your hand. Pray for yourself.

WHEN SHOULD I PRAY?

Traditionally, prayer times have been morning and evening, but you can choose a time which is best for you. It helps to be somewhere quiet, where you can have some time for yourself.

DO I HAVE TO KNEEL?

Kneeling is the traditional posture for penitence and standing for praise, but you can pray anywhere - walking, standing, sitting, whatever feels comfortable.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?

Be creative - use music, a stone, a feather, a flower, or a candle to help you focus - if you are very young, or elderly, be careful with candles!
Prayer activity is a discipline - it can be difficult at times, just like keeping fit, being on a diet, or keeping weeds down in the garden! Little and often is best, but don't give up! No prayer, however inadequate you may feel it to be, is ever wasted or of no value.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Build up a collection of favorite prayers and sayings -anything that speaks to you. You can find them in The Book of Common Prayer, Online at different sites, greeting cards, cuttings in the press or bookmarks and prayer cards. You could make a scrapbook for them.

WHAT PRAYERS DO YOU ALREADY KNOW BY HEART?

Make a list of these prayers. Even if you don’t know them perfectly, write each prayer out and put it in your scrapbook. You may want to put photographs or draw a picture that reminds you of what the prayer means to you.

WRITE YOUR OWN PRAYERS

See if you can write your own prayer.

A SNAPSHOT OF OUR SOUL

2011-11-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

I am going to write about our Gospel for this week by sharing another story that took place at the wedding of Nathan and Ariana Blumenfeld-James that involved their Moms, three candles, and a lighter that would not work.

In this week's Gospel, Jesus tells another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. The story is about a bridegroom who goes off to negotiate the dowry with his bride's father and is delayed in returning to his home where members of his family have been given the responsibility to light the way for he and his bride when they come to the wedding feast.

Jesus' story is really a snapshot of our corporate soul as we make our way through history. The human soul is often referred to in the feminine, whether a person is a male or a female. So Jesus’ story of two sorts of young women might just be a tale of the human soul divided and seeking to be united. In the land of souls and dreams such images of division are common.

In this story, the division is between the wise and the unwise. The wise young women are the members of the bridegroom’s family who anticipate that his return with his bride may be delayed and so they prepare for the long wait by bringing along supplies of oil so that when the bride and groom do return, they will be able to fulfill their responsibility of lighting their way to the wedding feast.

The unwise young women, on the other hand, fail to plan for a long delay and do not bring extra oil with them. So, when the bridegroom finally appears, these two groups fly into action. The wise young women begin to trim their wicks and fill their lamps so that they can quickly go out and meet their family member and his new bride while the unwise young women have to go in search of oil at midnight and do not make it back to fulfill their duties.

My sympathies are with the unwise young women who did not plan. On October 15, 2011, our daughter got married and part of the ceremony included a ceremonial lighting of three candles by the mothers of the bride and groom. Since it was an outdoor wedding and we were concerned that there might be a breeze that would make it hard for most tapers to be used for the purpose of lighting the candles, I bought two butane lighters shaped and colored like large matches (really large). On the day of the wedding, my wife called me to tell me that one of these lighters was not working and probably needed to be filled with butane.

My mind flashed back to the day I bought these two lighters. One of them seemed to have difficulties lighting and so the clerk filled it up with butane and it finally did light. I left the store with one of those feelings in the pit of my stomach that said, “Go back and exchange that lighter for one that works better,” but I, like the unwise five young women, shook off this feeling with the thought that it would work out just fine.

So, the call from Madelyn sent a message of distress through me. I had not acted with wisdom and my gut feeling and instincts and now the consequences were playing out. Like one of those unwise maidens, I set out to find a can of butane to fill that one troublesome lighter. I went to several places, but finally found a can of butane and gladly bought it and headed to the wedding sight well before the wedding was to start. I filled both of the lighters, but that pesky one was still not lighting very well.

Madelyn, my wife, and Katherine, the groom’s mother, according to my understanding of the ceremony, needed separate lighters so that both could separately light a candle representing each of the bride and groom’s families and then the mothers were going to raise both lighters from their separate flames and light the center candle representing the new family that the bride and groom were starting.

Katherine came up to me as I was fussing with the dysfunctional lighter and I told her that we were having technical difficulties with one of the lighters. She did not hesitate, but quickly offered a solution to the problem. They would use the one good lighter. Madelyn would light the candle representing her family and then Katherine would light the candle representing her family and then they would both hold the lighter to light the third candle together.

When Madelyn arrived on the scene, we explained to her the problem and the offered solution. She loved and joyfully embraced the solution and the ceremony went off without a hitch. In a very small, but profound way, this little story that came from Nathan and Ariana’s wedding day was a snapshot of the human soul that invites the Kingdom of Heaven and lights its way into human experience.

Consider how this story might have had a different ending.

1. Katherine could have said, “Well, I was here first, so let Madelyn figure out what she is going to do about her defective lighter.

2. I could have blamed the clerk for selling me this defective lighter and in self-protecting –righteousness spent the time before the wedding trying to call the hardware store to give them a piece of my mind. I could have also blamed Madelyn for causing the lighter to dysfunction and thrown a real fit right then and there on the stage. Since I was the “unwise” servant in this episode, I could have done all manner of things to cover my failure to properly prepare for this most important ceremony.

3. Madelyn could have said, “It’s not my fault the lighter is not working, lets flip a coin to see who gets to have the one good lighter and the loser will have to just deal with the consequences.”

Notice that these three choices could have jeopardized not only the whole ceremony, but the ongoing relationships between the two families. But it would most certainly further divided our souls and the soul of the world. What I experienced in this brief little episode that preceded the wedding was grace and the outbreak of the Kingdom of Heaven and a sign that within the souls of Katherine and Madelyn, the Spirit of God was present and at work in a most powerful way. It was Katherine’s gracious solution that may have just turned me away from some of the other ways I might have gone. Such grace eliminates the anxiety of trying to defend yourself.

I watched as the lighter passed from Madelyn to Katherine and then both of their hands wrapped around the lighter and both of their hands guided that light to the center candle where they lit that larger candle. This was soul work. This was the stuff of which the Kingdom of Heaven is made. This was a wisdom that transcended the selfish, egocentric needs of individuals and resulted in the glorious “We” that is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Some may say that this was really not that big a deal for these two moms to do what they did together, but I would suggest that it is just such small and powerful choices that can make the difference between a world of love and grace and one of selfishness and self-centeredness.

So, what are we to make of Jesus’ story? What if the “Wise Five” had shown the same sort of compassion and concern for the “Less-Wise Five” and shared their oil with them?” What if the bridegroom had welcomed his less prepared family members into the party? Is the Kingdom Heaven about fulfilling roles or about finding compassion in the midst of the disappointments and failures of life?

Jesus’ story is a snapshot of the human soul he found on earth during his lifetime and even today. It is a snapshot of how people view God—if you don’t do what you are supposed to do, God will not invite you into the party. It is a snapshot of a world soul struggling to discern what God would have us do to be acceptable to him or her and trying to separate the human family into those who follow the rules and duties expected of them and those who need more than just a clearly defined list of rules and duties.

Both the “wise” and the “unwise” need one another to discover the Kingdom of Heaven and the love and grace for which both groups hunger and thirst.

Perhaps you have a story or two like the one I shared about our recent wedding that lights up that moment called the Kingdom of Heaven when grace and love overcame our human need to be right, in charge, or important. The Kingdom of Heaven is ushered in by the light of love and grace in small, but powerful ways.

SHOW UP AT THIS WEDDING OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

2011-10-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, October 15, 2011, is a big day in the life of my family. Our daughter, Ariana will be married on that day to Nathan Blumenfeld-James at the Will Geer Theater. It will be a festive and lovely day. The bride will be beautiful and the groom will be glowing and filled with strong emotions as he sees her coming towards him in procession.

This wedding will be like no other wedding that has ever been or that will ever be again. The joining together of Ariana and Nathan will bring together two families that stretch back in time to ancestors from all over the earth and Ariana and Nathan will join in that history on their wedding day.

Of course, I am excited, delighted, and overjoyed to be joining them as witness and presider of the vows they take that day. Please keep the whole of the wedding party in your prayers as they make their ways to Los Angeles for this wonderful day and celebration.

So, by now it should be obvious, I hope, that the title for my Gospel Reflection this week does not apply to Ariana and Nathan's wedding, but is about a rather strange tale that Jesus tells concerning a royal wedding. What makes this story most difficult is that Jesus introduces the story with the words: “Let’s talk about the Kingdom of Heaven.” As the story unfolds, I hope you begin to feel a sinking sensation inside of your stomach because this story is not the worst nightmare wedding story you have ever heard.

It starts off with a sense of normalcy. A certain man who is a king wishes to have a wedding banquet for his son. Apparently the king had already sent out invitations to those who supposed to attend this gala affair, but he had not heard back from any of them. So, he sends his slaves to them with this message: “Tell those who have been invited: ‘Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’”

The response from these invited guests is categorically negative. Most of the invited claimed they had other business to which they had to attend. But there were others which Jesus calls “the rest” who did more than simply disregard the invitation. They seized the king’s slaves, “mistreated them, and killed them.”

So, this is the point in the story where things get very weird and out of control. What is up with the invited guests? Is that any way to show respect or to treat a king’s slaves?

The rejection of the invitation by some, no doubt encouraged the rest of the invitees to react in violence towards the king’s slaves. So far the party is not looking like it is going to happen. The king’s response is one of rage and you might think a bit over the top considering that only a few of those invited had mistreated or killed his slaves. The king sends his troops to hunt down the murderers, but he also orders that the whole city be burned down as well.

As the city smolders and burns, the king says to his slaves: “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Imagine throwing your son a banquet to celebrate his wedding and then populating the party with people who were simply there to fill the seats. If central casting had been around, the king might have simply put in a call for a certain number of people for the party and then even provided these “guests” with the proper dress for the occasion.

Those who show up for the wedding are described as “both good and bad.” But the objective of the king is fulfilled. The hall is full of guests.

But the story does not end here with this faux party for a royal son. The king discovers someone in the party who has not put on the wedding clothes he had provided the other guests. The king asks the inappropriately glad stranger: “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” Perhaps the man had not been given the wedding robe by the king’s slaves, but the man is described as “speechless” before the king. Having burned down the city of those who rejected his invitation and killed those who murdered his slaves, the king rage surfaces again and is directed at this poor, speechless wretch.

The king orders his slaves: “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus ends this story with this strange and oft repeated phrase: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

So what are we to make of this story that Jesus tells? Some traditional commentaries treat this as an allegory in which the king is God; the invited guests who reject his offer are the religious leaders of Jerusalem; the slaves who are sent by the king are the prophets; those who murder the prophets on behalf of those who reject God’s invitation are also part of the Jerusalem population (perhaps the zealots); the “guests” invited to the banquet from the main highways are the Gentiles who become the church; and the lone ill-glad guest is simply one more non-responsive person.

But I would suggest that such an allegorical interpretation contradicts the one picture of God in Christ that is the last picture the human race sees of the historical Jesus. Jesus dies outside the city of Jerusalem. When he is brought before those who question him and who are intent on killing him in order to keep the peace, he remains speechless, silent.

Jesus understood his life and his authority came from a very different place than the power that the king and those who murdered the king’s slaves exercised. in his story exercised. God’s power given to Jesus was the power of love, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy and Jesus seemed to find in Isaiah’s suffering servant what this God’s power and wisdom looked like when the power and wisdom that was based upon threats and the use of violence intersected. Here is a quote from Isaiah that the early church used to express their understanding of God as God became known in Jesus.

Isaiah 53:7-11

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
9 They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb* with the rich,*
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

So perhaps as we hear this story of the wedding from hell on Sunday, we will do well to see in the last character introduced, the man without the wedding robe, what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like in a world that seems to only find authority in the use of threats and violence.

We can always chose to believe that God is the king in this tale of violence and suffering, but then what shall we do with Jesus and the cross? And what sort of a party will the Kingdom of Heaven be if we are there under the threat of divine judgment and punishment?

Only Jesus Was Left in the Temple

2011-09-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Only Jesus was left in the Temple. The sheep,and the birds were set free to escape their fate as sacrifices for the sins of others. The coins needed for exchange to buy sacrificial animals were all on the ground. Only Jesus was left in the Temple.

Our Gospel reading for this Sunday begins with a question posed by the religious leadership of the Temple: "By what authority do you do the things that you are doing?"

What was Jesus doing that so upset those who were responsible for maintaining the lawful and ordered processes of religion?

His actions are called the cleansing of the Temple. By disrupting a religious activity that had a long and respected history, Jesus was offering the world of religion and politics an alternative way for creating peace and unity in the world.

Jesus was the only sacrifice left in the Temple and his giving of himself to us and for us created a space called the Kingdom of Heaven in the place of shame, death, sin, and sacrificial violence.

When you hear claims that Jesus is the Only Son of God or the Lord of Heaven and Earth, consider that this title is only available for the One whom St. Paul spoke of in our reading for this Sunday:

Philippians 2:1-13

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Weed?

2011-07-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

This week's Gospel Reflection is offered to the Glory of God in thanksgiving for the life and ministry of John Simpson. John was not a perfect human being, but he was a man who continually wrestled with God and with our human condition in hopes of one day being part of God's dream for us all.

In a recent interview of John, he made this statement: “I’m a member of the church. One of the things they teach us in church is our job is to be helpful, is to be of service. You don’t have time to think about your own problems when you’re busy trying to help other people live better.”

John was one of those wonderful birds who found a home in the mustard tree of God's kingdom on earth and who welcomed others to join him in the loving arms of that tree. May God bless John as he goes from strength to strength and from glory to glory in continued service to God and others.

Matthew 13:31-33

Jesus put before the crowds another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

Who would anyone ever compare the Kingdom of Heaven to a weed? Jesus did. I love parables because they confront my usual way of thinking about life. You see the mustard bush is a weed. Why would I want a weed in my life? Why would Jesus or anyone else think that comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a weed was a good way of promoting or even talking about the Kingdom of Heaven to those of us who like our world to be as free of pesky weeds as possible?

We are about to enter a deeper place of our souls if we pursue this parable and that place is accessed by the questions that will surely arise if we challenge Jesus’ use of a mustard seed that grows into a huge weed as a proper way of understanding what God is doing in our world. I ask who is the “someone” who would intentionally do such a thing to his own field?

Mustard seeds are very tiny. Perhaps these seeds got accidentally mixed in with the seeds “someone” was planting in his field. The parable does not seem to give us that idea. In fact, it seems that the owner of the field did not plant anything but a single mustard seed in the whole of his field.

Now that is peculiar and if you recall that Jesus just told us another parable about wheat and weeds growing up together and that the weeds would be allowed to grow up with the wheat until they were separated out and burned at the great harvest, the idea of suggesting that this “someone” was God is even harder to understand.

So, let’s just accept the possibility that God is the “someone” who intentionally plants this one tiny little mustard seed in the field that is God’s field and that this tiny seed grows into a humungous weed that is so big that it is like a tree that every sort of bird can call home. What are we to make of the parable now?

I would like to offer a quote from an early Church theologian named Tertullian. He said: “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Martyrs are people who die seeking to live according to God’s dream of justice, mercy, forgiveness, and resurrection.

The tiniest seed of blood that fell to the ground beneath the cross is the seed of the church. This tiny seed of Christ’s blood carries the DNA of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and is growing into a large and sometimes unwanted presence in a world that has chosen to live without God from the beginning.

Jesus’ parable makes more sense when we read it from the perspective of God giving his life and very being in that one seed of Jesus planted on the hill outside of Jerusalem, the city of peace where there is no peace. We have chosen ways of living and dealing with our problems without God and that way of dealing was exposed most clearly, definitively, and finally on the cross of Jesus.

Jesus who represented the love and mercy of God was rejected like some unwanted and pernicious weed messing up our human garden and our sense of things and yet, that one life, that one tiny human seed of God is growing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

His dying at our hands released the very seed of his life that is transforming our world and giving all of us a place here on earth to call home. The Kingdom of Heaven is open and welcoming to all of us. No one is excluded. No one is left behind.

It is this message of grace that our world seeks to ignore, cast out, and silence. It is the Good News of the weed of God’s Kingdom on earth that we proclaim.

Alleluia! Alleluia!! Alleluia!!!

Weeding Out the Weeds?

2011-07-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been too quick to judge someone?

Have you ever been judged too quickly by yourself or by others?

If you have experienced these situations, you might find Jesus’ parable about the landowner who sowed good seeds in his field interesting. The landowner plants good seeds to grow wheat, but his slaves come back to him and ask him why he has also planted weeds.

This parable is simple, but difficult for us to hear. We certainly look at the horrible injustices that are happening around the world today and perhaps wonder why God is allowing such things to take place. We may think or say that if God were a loving God, he would stop such evil by tearing those responsible for it from creation.

Since the beginning of human community we have found ourselves judging ourselves and others quickly and almost out of habit. Most people think they are pretty good at judging others, but the parable suggests that we really are not that good at it. The story of Adam and Eve is a parable of what happens when human beings think that they can tell the weeds from the wheat.

So, when the landowner’s slaves ask him what they should do about the weeds growing up in the field of wheat, the landowner tells them not to wade through the wheat to tear out the weeds because all that tramping about might destroy the wheat. More importantly wheat and this sort of weed called darnel look very much alike making it really hard to know one from the other and risking the loss of additional valuable wheat through mistaken identity.

Jesus lived and died this parable. In order to understand it we need to look at how this parable played out in his life. Was he the landowner, the son of man, one of the slaves, the good seed growing up into wheat to nourish, or one of the weeds that the enemy had planted at night? Go through each of these roles and see how the cross fits into the parable or how the parable is more easily understood from the perspective of the cross.

Parables have the power to take us deeper into truth and meaning. The story takes us on a tour of the Kingdom of Heaven as it is unfolding in the world. Consider what might have happened if the slaves had decided to disregard the master’s instructions.

Consider how patient or impatient you become when you see a perfectly good thing or person being threatened by someone or something.

Consider those times that you have decided to take things into your own hands and disregard the commandment to love as we are loved.

Consider how the Kingdom of Heaven is growing up around us despite the weeds.

Consider how easily we confuse wheat and weeds?

Consider how much damage we do when we try to weed out others who we see as “weeds” in our otherwise perfect world.

REVENGE

2011-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

An icy, hard-packed snow ball was painful when it hit you in the face. It left a big red mark on impact and usually sent me running into the house for comfort and first aid. To get hit that way was a game-ender for me. There were times when being the youngest of my playmates and the smallest was a distinct disadvantage. The older kids could scoop up snow quickly pack it hard and then chase me down while I was still recovering from a previous attack and then unload on me again. I was everyone’s target until I went inside. Then a new target was identified and the game went on without me.

Bill Cosby tells a story about his attempt at getting revenge on one person (Junior Barnes) who hit him square in the face with a slushball. Of course, Bill had already hit another kid in the face, but not with a slushball. Slushballs were supposedly outlawed by their code of conduct. When the code was broken by Junior Barnes, the only response Bill could come up with was revenge.

He made a slushball to end all slushballs and he stored it in his Mom’s freezer. He waited until July. July 12th to be exact. He invited Junior over to his home to sit out on the porch with him and Bill pretended to be Junior’s friend. Finally he goes to the kitchen and tries to retrieve the frozen slushball only to discover that his Mom had thrown it away. Since he did not have the intended instrument of wrath (Wrath Rock of vengeance), he spit on Junior Barnes.

Cosby’s story, while humorous, reveals a side of human life that is dark and when spread large results in a world of pain, suffering, unforgiveness, and vengeance. Children play games in preparation and training for the world in which they are growing up and will inherit. On Sunday, I will bring the box that you see above. Imagine that each of us has within us a space for the rocks of wrath and vengeance that are hurled at us during our lifetimes.

What do we do with these RoWaVs stored in our ME boxes? We saw what Cosby did when he was hit with the slushball. The pain, embarrassment, and fear of being hit sat inside of him and daily gnawed on him and moved him to resentment and vengeance. He did not have a way to forgive because to forgive was seen as weakness and an invitation to the Junior Barnes of the world to further abuse him.

It is interesting that Cosby himself had already hit another boy with a soft snowball and the code or law of snowball fights left that boy without a legal complaint. Cosby had acted within the law, but the offense against his friend was still hurtful. Will this friend plot against Cosby? We don’t know.

Jesus calls those who have are tired of carrying resentments and plans of vengeance against others to come to him. He calls us people who are burdened and he offers us rest. But, this is not an invitation to opt out of a world that still operates on the rules of wrath and violence, but to pick up Jesus’ yoke of forgiveness , mercy, and grace. While this may seem like a foolish thing to do to some, it is when communities of people begin to take up this yoke of Christ that the world and the world’s rules can be changed.

Jesus’ invitation to come to him follows a very long section of Matthew’s Gospel that talks about discipleship. What is it to be a disciple and an apostle of Jesus? Perhaps you can think of times in your life like the one that Bill Cosby humorously relates when you were totally obsessed with getting even with someone who had broken the rules and hurt you.

Remember that in Bill’s story he had already thrown a snowball at someone else.

How did he respond to the person he had hit?

How did he feel when Junior Barnes hit him?

What community of influence led to these hurtful experiences?

What community of influence dictated your response to being hurt whether it was through resentment and revenge or forgiveness and reconciliation?

Welcoming Jesus and the One Who Sent Him

2011-06-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

The portrait of Jesus standing at a door in the night with a golden light shining out from the center of his chest hung in my Grandmother’s home. I used to look at that picture as a child and wonder if the person on whose door Jesus had just knocked would open the door and welcome him inside.

I also wondered why there was no door knob on the outside of the door. Didn’t the person who lived inside ever go outside and need a way to open the door from the outside? The door looked solid as the light of Jesus’ lantern illuminated it. I wondered if the little peep hole in the door allowed the light of Jesus’ lantern to shine through to the person on the inside.

As a child I could not understand why anyone who not open their door wide and welcome the Jesus I had been taught was God’s unique and only Son. The painting certainly helped accentuate my understanding and wonder. He looks kindly, benevolent, clean, well groomed, and well, Godly. Of course, my eyes had already been taught to see Jesus with love and acceptance which made the painting even more compelling.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading from Matthew talks about how welcoming Jesus is the same as welcoming the God who sent him. Look at the picture again. Why is there no door knob on the outside of the door? Perhaps it was the artist’s way of saying that we have a choice about welcoming Jesus and the one who sent him into our lives, into our hearts, into the core, into the way we see, hear, perceive, intuit, and then act on and in our lives in our relationships with others and creation.

The door allows us to see through the peep hole and to take our cues about what is real and true and what we should desire by what we see and hear others valuing and pursuing which means our internal operating system is completely based upon what is outside of ourselves. The door protects us from outside influences taking hold of us completely. Perhaps the door is a gift from God to protect us from being taken over by others.

If this is a gift from God, then the painter of the picture of Jesus at the door captured a scene in the life of every soul—the moment when the door can prevent Jesus and God from coming into our hearts and help us live lives from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

As Jesus says to his disciples, inviting and welcoming him is inviting and welcoming the one who sent him. In short, to welcome Jesus into our lives, not as threat, but as welcomed guest is the same as inviting the community of love and peace we call the Trinity into our lives. It is to experience the Kingdom of Heaven on the inside in such a way as to begin to act in ways that create the Kingdom of Heaven in our world.

What is the reward for welcoming Jesus and the one who sent him into our lives? As Father Norm said it so beautifully last week, friendship with God and the ability to see God in other people and to live from the inside out in God’s love and peace. The door to our souls has a door knob on the inside only, but the light of Christ is shining just outside and there is a knock on our door. How will we know that Jesus is knocking and in need of being welcomed?

GOT LIVING WATER (AKA FORGIVENESS)?

2011-06-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Before I offer a reflection on the Gospel text for this Sunday, I would like to invite you to read two passages. The first passage comes at the end of Jesus’ life and the second, our Gospel for this Pentecost Sunday, comes from the beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross.

John19:28

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’"

John 7:37-39

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, `Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'" Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

In our Gospel reading for this week Jesus invites all of those who are thirsty to come to him and receive the gift of living water that once received will bubble up inside of all of those who trust God to satisfy their thirst for being forgiven and living in a forgiving world. This living water is one of the ways that Jesus describes how vital God’s message is to bringing about a world in which forgiveness is the way of being human. It is this way that brings eternal (forgiving) living.

On the cross, Jesus’ solidarity with us is offered in the next to the last thing he says, “I am thirsty.” Thirst is not a desire that maye either be fulfilled or frustrated rather it is a necessity of human life. As Jesus was dying on the cross alone and without human forgiveness, he poured himself into that world of darkness and cruelty where the prophets and countless others had died without a trace of human compassion being offered.

He became one (at-one-ment) with us all, with those who die in anonymity, disgrace, disfavor, curse and unforgiveness, but he also died in solidarity with those who fight to stay out of that category of the blamed and unforgiven by following the rules of what some have called “enlightened selfishness,” which extols unbridled selfishness and condemns altruism as a misguided instinct. I believe that we all have a deep and abiding hope that God forgives and that the very human system that denies God’s forgiveness as weak and counter-productive does not quench our thirst for what we know to be true.

If you have known the sense of having gone beyond the limit of forgiveness, you are a thirsty person. If you have ever held that others who have hurt you were be beyond your ability to be forgiven by you and maybe by God, you are a thirsty person. Forgiveness is not just an act of pardoning someone who has hurt us—it is a way of life.

On the cross, in his last moment of life, Jesus died the death of being without human forgiveness and only having his relationship with God as the source of knowing he was innocent. This was not a substitute death on the behalf of sinners, but God seeking to be one with us in such a way as to know the pain of not being forgiven and to know the heavy burden of a world that is unforgiving.

Jesus described this pain in terms of thirst. He spoke of those who hunger and thirst for right relationships as thirst for forgiveness. The world offers a drink that does not offer God’s life affirming and life giving spirit. Here is how John described this reality:

John 19:29

“A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Jesus drank the bitter wine served up by a world without pity, mercy, love, or forgiveness. And once he had received that bitter offering, he said, “It is finished.” What was finished was the work he came to do.

He brought life-giving waters of forgiveness into the world and once his disciples and others tasted this water, it became in them a mighty river flowing out into the world that has changed and will continue to transform our world.

The Holy Spirit was breathed out of Jesus and into the hearts of those who are coming to believe in a world where love and forgiveness become the new creation. May we know the thirst of Jesus for God’s forgiving love. Happy Pentecost!

Confirmation, Discernment, & Questions of Concern and Hope

2011-06-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

“All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified (made larger) in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."

Making Jesus Larger in Us and in the World

We will be celebrating the confirmation and reception of 7 people this coming Sunday. They are being confirmed because they are sufficiently convinced that God loves them and that they love God as God was shown to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. My goals for this class were two-fold:

1. I hoped to offer a view of Jesus that showed them the heart and purpose of God in the world. In short, I hoped that they would fall in love with the God of love who became large in our world through Jesus.

2. I hoped that they would begin to ask questions that represented their concerns and hopes and by doing so discover that they were making a space for God in their hearts that would grow and grow.

The process of discernment engages our minds and hearts in seeing how we belong to God and how God becomes larger through the lives of those who love God and give themselves to a life-time commitment to God in love and service. It is an intimate relationship of trust that allows for questions for which we may not find answers, but which in the asking, allows a place within each soul for God to grow larger in the world through a deeper and deeper intimacy with God.

Asking questions is our human way of revealing our deepest concerns and hopes. During the discernment time of confirmation class we followed these questions of concern and hope back to the source of all concern and hope. Questions about God and about ourselves in relationship to God and other people; about the Bible and what it reveals about being human and seeking to know and love and serve God; about the uniqueness of Jesus as the bringer of God into human flesh and blood; about the church and the work of the Holy Spirit in history; and about Christ Church as our spiritual home became our path to connecting to one another and to the God who created us all and brought us together for this time of discernment.

Discernment is a lifelong vocation for Christians. It is part of our life of prayer that keeps us following Jesus as we love God in Jesus and in others and wrestle with things which seem to separate us from God and one another. This is the work of God for each Christian person and for the church and we are given the Holy Spirit to lead us along this path. We must allow our questions to express our heart-felt concern and hope as we deepen our relationship with one another, with those we are called to love and serve, and with God.

Those who will be confirmed this Sunday by Bishop Glasspool will join the ranks of Christian men and women beginning with the earliest disciples and stretching back even further to the earliest humans who formed the first questions about the meaning and purpose of life and of their place in the creation. These are the questions that lead us into a deeper and deeper intimate relationship with God and the people in our lives.

Our questions do not stop when we are baptized, confirmed, or ordained but continue to be the internal and external way of discovery, joy, and love of God in us and in our brothers and sisters in God. IF we ask our questions and allow God to respond to these questions through by being attentive during our times of quiet and prayer, we will discover that God's responses may be a gentle question back to us or a deep calm or a troubled spirit or maybe a person or happening in our lives that gives us a clear message in response to our questions. IF we ask, we will discover God is with us and in us as friend and companion.

May God’s life and love continue to grow larger and larger (glorify) in the lives of Evan, Barbara, Shari, Laura, Brianna, Haley, and Mitchell and in all of us who join with them in renewing our Baptismal vows this Sunday.

THE CAPACITY TO FORGIVE & LOVE

2011-05-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Do I love Jesus?

This question is one that every Christian has answered in one way or another and perhaps time after time. The question is not usually asked as simply as I have stated it here. No, the question of loving God and Jesus is posed in the particular way we live our lives; in the relationships we have with others; in our willingness or unwillingness to forgive those around us; in the way we find to incarnate love as Jesus incarnated God’s love or to cast such love out as unworkable and impractical.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached a powerful sermon on loving our enemies in 1957 from the pulpit of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was Christmas and the Montgomery bus boycott was underway. Dr. King had been put in jail for civil disobedience and it was from that jail cell that he wrote this sermon.

In the midst of the struggle for civil rights when stones were thrown at him; police dogs set on him and those who followed him; fire hoses used to knock him to the ground and punish those who would follow him, and the FBI was investigating him for his activities, Dr. King spoke of loving Jesus by loving what he called one’s neighbor-enemies.

He said: “First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

Dr. King understood that to love Jesus was to love his neighbor-enemy. He talked about the capacity to forgive and to love. Capacity is created by having first experienced God’s forgiveness and love towards us. Jesus spent three years with his disciples and their capacity to forgive and love was enlarged by being with Jesus and witnessing Jesus’ loving-kindness and forgiveness that he showed for those whom the disciples might never have forgiven or loved.

But their real capacity for forgiving and loving was deepened when they abandoned, denied, and betrayed Jesus and then experienced the forgiveness and love which Jesus offered them in resurrection. It seems that experiencing our own darkness and our own need to be forgiven and loved is how our capacity for forgiving our neighbor-enemies and loving them is increased in us. It would also appear that the way we maintain this capacity is by continuing to remember the amazing grace of God in our lives and seeing God’s work of forgiveness and love as our work.

Jesus said to his disciples as he was saying good-bye to them the night of his arrest: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What did Jesus command?

Jesus was not referring to the totality of laws and commandments contained in the Jewish scriptures. Jesus summarized the multitude of these laws and commandments with a rubric that put how we relate to God and to one another in very clear terms:

36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22: 36-40)

He also offered a new commandment at that last meal with his disciples. He said:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Years later, the apostle John did a recap on His new commandment in his first epistle to the church:

“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” (1 John 3:23)

Do God’s work in the world of forgiving and loving our neighbor-enemy that is what John’s Gospel calls believing that Jesus is God’s true child and image. It is affirming that developing and maintaining the capacity to forgive and love as God forgives and loves us is the core of faith and belief. John’s Gospel says:

“For God loved the world in just this way that he gave his one and only Son to the end that all who believe (do the work of forgiving and loving as God forgives and loves) in him (as the full expression of who God is and who were created to be) shall not perish (live and die in a world that does not accept God’s forgiveness and love, but rather clings to belief that sin can only be punished and not forgiven and that love must be earned), but have eternal life (living the life of God in the world so that others will discover the power and life of God’s forgiveness and love)"

On June 5th, we will be given the opportunity to reaffirm our faith as we welcome Bishop Mary Glasspool and support those who will be confirmed and received into the Episcopal Church. We will renew our the promises and vows we made when we were baptized or when we were confirmed. Those who will be confirmed have been prepared the best way I know how to prepare someone to be a Christian. I have invited them to fall in love with God; to allow God a place within them and for them to find that they are already abiding in God’s Trinity of love.

I invite those who read this reflection to consider what it means to believe in God and in Jesus Christ and with joy to embrace the capacity to forgive, to love, and to give God a place in the world where you live.

Every Sunday , every day, every moment is a good time to fall in love with God, but on June 5th we have a very special time to make that love public. To witness to the forgiveness and love in our lives and may God the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit increase in us the capacity for forgiveness and love of our neighbor-enemies.

I love and believe in Jesus. Amen .

ARE YOU RUNNING WITH ME JESUS?

2011-05-19T13:33:00.001-07:00

In 1965, I was graduated from Mira Costa High School and headed off to California State College at Long Beach where I would join over 19,000 other college students from all over the planet in pursuit of higher education. I had been raised in the Episcopal Church and loved my community of faith, but the times were turbulent with war, civil rights marches and protests against the Viet Nam War were daily news items as were the growing number of kids whose lives were ended by war.

I struggled to make sense of all that was going on around me. There were so many competing voices inside of my head and heart that sought to form me based upon the desires these voices spoke into me. As an emerging adult whose ego or whatever you call that part of us that thinks it can control and regulate the desires of others that almost seem pre-loaded in us, struggled with all of the conflicts which constantly fired up inside of my head and heart.

You could say that I felt tossed and turned as if in a boat on a stormy sea without a rudder, a map, a navigator, a purpose, a source of power, or an identity. Being raised in the United States of America we learn that we are to think independently of the crowd and that all of the desires and ways of others are somehow outside of us and can only come into us with our permission. We clearly believe in personal autonomy, but I was discovering that such autonomy and control of outside forces of conformity or non-conformity was not true.

For better or worse, the very self I believed to be autonomous was a composite of all of the other thoughts and desires of those who preceded me in the world and for whom my survival depended. These thoughts and desires also established a sort of Internal Operating System that put everything in some sort of order so that I could function on a daily basis. I came to believe or understand that this configuration of thoughts and desires did not always result in behavior towards others that demonstrated love, care, or even consideration.

Faced with the existential realities of life in 1965, I happened upon a little book written by an Episcopal priest named Malcolm Boyd. I had never heard of him, but was shocked to discover that he was called the "espresso priest" because he was reading poetry or prayers or something in a night club called the Hungry I in San Francisco. I was amazed that what had been church had somehow found its way into a night club and that people were flocking to hear what Malcom was offering.

Malcolm captured my sense of being lost in one particular poem called “Are You Running with Me Jesus?” I was clear that my Internal Operating System was fickle, unstable, and breaking down. While giving the impression that I was in charge, my IOS was falling apart and unable to make sense out of the world as it was coming towards me.

Malcolm helped me turn towards God in a real and life changing way. Here is what Malcom wrote that found its way into my life:

It's morning, Jesus.
It's morning,
and here's that light and sound
all over again.

I've got to move fast ...
get into the bathroom, wash up,
grab a bite to eat,
and run some more.

I just don't feel like it, Lord.
What I really want to do
is to get back into bed,
pull up the blankets, and sleep.

All I seem to want today
is the big sleep,
and here I've got to run all over again.

Where am I running?
You know these things
I can't understand.

It's not that I need to have you tell me.
What counts most is just that somebody knows,
and it's you.
That helps a lot.

So, I'll follow along, okay?
But lead, Lord.
Now I've got to run.
Are you running with me, Jesus?

Malcom Boyd (1965)

Malcolm found a way of expressing our human need for bringing order out of our “unruly wills and affections” that resonated with me. There is a passage from 1 John 4:4 that reads: “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” The God who can live within us and become our strength, purpose, power, guide, and identity that seems to elude our own IOS is greater, larger, more comprehensive, expansive, creative, loving, inclusive, and most importantly, transcendent than the all of the desires and thoughts of this world that would deprive us of the truth that is in us.

To follow Jesus, to know that God in Christ cares for us in the most personal and intimate way and to be known to God in this way is to replace certainty with faith and death with life. Jesus is a life donor. He gives of God what only God can give to us and we are bid to share this great gift with others. Forty-six years ago Malcolm Boyd re-introduced me to the God whom I had loved in Church. He showed me that this same God in whom I had found love, grace, purpose, and identity was not just in the church, but was running wild in the world and could become the center of my life both inside and outside of the church.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Give your hearts to God. Give your hearts also to me. In my Father’s house there are many places for you to live and thrive. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go there to prepare a place for you? And if I go there, I will return, so that where I am you may be also.”

Are you running with me Jesus? Thank you.

A GAME ENDING AND LIFE GIVING BREAD

2011-05-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

We live in confusing times and so when there seems to be a moment where we can claim certainty of any kind, we jump on it like thirsty people in a desert. This past week we have discovered how very thirsty we are for moral clarity and how such clarity brings a sense of celebration. The death of a man who admittedly orchestrated the deaths of many people of all different faiths and of no particular faith at all on 9-11-2001 was just such a moment of clarity for many Americans and for some others around the globe.

But moral clarity in our world of sin, human wrath, and death never really quenches our thirst for righteousness or for unity or peace. No, that righteousness, unity, and peace can come from God alone. True justice does not come from simply killing the bad guys while remaining blissfully unaware of the part we have played in the evil in the world. Jesus understood the rules that create such blindness that poses as moral clarity and his death on the cross was the light shining in our great darkness of certitude. To end this game of human wrath, God entered into it and revealed himself in life giving bread.

The disciples who were headed back for Emmaus after Jesus’ death had accepted the moral certitude of those who had arrested, tried, and executed him. The moral clarity of the mob and the leaders seemed to trump all of their experience of being with Jesus. Imagine having spent three years with Jesus as he taught, healed, fed thousands of people, absorbed the threats and accusations of a growing number of people, forgave sins, and raised the dead and then have your whole opinion of him demolished in a day.

Yet that is what happened and their conversation reveals their great disappointment that Jesus was not the one for whom they had been hoping.

They too sought moral clarity, but even more, they sought moral certainty. Moral certainty is intoxicating and can result in the very sorts of zealous and self-righteous acts of violence we see as monstrous in our world today. Moral certainty seems to blind us to the humanity of others. The deaths of others become simply collateral damage or necessary deaths in fulfillment of our sense of making the world into our image.

But what God offered the world is a Savior and a Lord who did not promise moral certitude in judging others, but forgiveness and love instead. We have been given the law to help guide us in our actions towards each other. We have had the law summarized for us by Jesus and others: Love God and love your neighbor. Yet even the law whose purpose it is to help us live graciously with each other has been turned into a tool of moral certitude or as St. Paul called it, sin.

But it is God’s grace, forgiveness, and love for us all that allows us to truly see one another as God sees us. To fully live in God’s grace, forgiveness, and love disarms us and puts us in a position of increased vulnerability. We may have a sense of what is right and wrong that governs and directs our own behavior, but in whatever we do or say, we are aware that God is calling us not to judge others as worthy of death, but to love them into life. As Jesus told the disciples such love often results in suffering.

It is our relationship with God and through God to one another that denies us the moral certainty that put Jesus on the cross. It is God’s love into which we were all baptized that is the death of moral certainty, but the beginning of a new life of loving and serving Christ in others. We are called (vocation) to even or more especially love those others whose moral certainty has convinced them that we deserve to die.

There are times when stopping someone from killing others is the most loving thing that can be done, but hate generated from moral certainty cannot be killed by a bullet, bomb, or knife. It can only be healed by loving acts directed towards those who are out to get us. We must take the initiative rather than waiting for others to do so.

The disciples on the road to their home in Emmaus had accepted the judgment of the world that Jesus deserved to die. They had lost a friend, but must have felt very disillusioned by his inability to be what they had hoped he would be. When a stranger joined them on the road home and asked them about their conversation, they began to pour out the story of their failed moral certitude.

The stranger upbraided them for being dull of mind and hard of heart and began to unpack the scriptures from beginning to end that would allow them to see and understand that their need for moral certitude was a symptom of the very soul-killing disease called sin that separated them from the life-giving love and presence of God.

It would be nice if these two disciples had simply and completely understood what the stranger was saying to them, but they did not. As they approached their home in Emmaus and saw that the stranger was intent on continuing his journey into the dark night, they wholeheartedly invited him to spend the night with them and to dine with them.

As they sat at the table with the stranger, the stranger took the bread on the table and did what the host would normally do: he took it, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his hosts and it was at that very moment that these two disciples recognized that the stranger was Jesus. They had been in the presence of the one they thought was dead physically, spiritually and morally. Once the crucified and risen Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread, he disappeared from their sight.

The message of scripture that Jesus had led them to understand was that the messiah must suffer before entering into his glory. If God was to speak to us clearly, God had to suffer by our hands and in the place that we all occupy, the place of being accused, judged, and sentenced for being guilty of being human. This is the place of deadly shame that is the work of the accuser, often called Satan.

The moral certitude and its judgments against those who offend is cruel and final and we all seek to avoid being judged in this way by pointing our fingers at others. The messiah stands in front of all of our fearful, wrathful, and violent fingers and bears that certitude and judgment on the cross for us all to see. The messiah takes our human wrath that is directed towards us all and redirects it towards God in him.

Like the disciples, we are on a journey home. We have had many moments of moral clarity and certitude that in the end may have proved to be dead-ends. For some of us these dead-ends are seen as temporary setbacks, sort of like our home town team losing the championship. Because we may have won more championships or games than we have lost, we continue to believe that the game and the rules of the game are good. It is an awful like Las Vegas gambling that gives us a sense that we can win all if we just keep gambling.

We, like the disciples, are confused by the complex and challenging issues facing us. We want a quick fix to protect us from those who judge us as we have judged others. We are foolish and our hearts are slow to believe that there is any way of being human outside this closed system of human wrath and judgment. It is in the midst of this state of disillusionment that Jesus seems to appear to us and offers us an understanding that the rules of the game are not God’s rules and not God’s game, but our own.

The messiah is not just someone sent from God to win our game by playing by our rules of wrath, judgment, sin, and death and using his great power to put down with moral certainty all of the evil ones in the world. Jesus says, “the messiah must suffer…” It is in the breaking of the bread which is his body that the rules of our human game are shown to us as broken and the cause of all human pain and suffering. That is the moment when the disciples finally recognized Jesus. He was no longer a stranger with whom they chose to share their home and their meal, he was God among us as Savior and Lord.

We gather each week and sometimes more often to hear scripture read and unpacked by the preacher and then we gather around the Table at Christ Church to break bread together. In an instant we may see in that broken bread, not a stranger, but Jesus. We may rejoice that having heard the Word, we now make that Word a part of who we are in ways that are not always dramatic or earth shaking, but true.

Now you might just ask where Jesus went once he had offered his disciples the taken, blessed, broken, and given bread. I would suggest that he was deeply within the hearts and souls of these two followers and that they carried him with them back to Jerusalem and throughout their lives as the one who had liberated them from the death of a game where there really are no winners, only losers and delivered them into the heart, mind, and hands of a loving, ever-living, always forgiving, pain bearing God.

As we prepare for this Easter season celebration of the resurrection of Christ, let us pray:

“O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

Collect for Easter III

THE READINGS ASSIGNED FOR THE DAY

Acts 2:14a,36-41

Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the multitude, "Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17 Page 759, BCP
Dilexi, quoniam

1
I love the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my supplication, *
because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him.

2
The cords of death entangled me;
the grip of the grave took hold of me; *
I came to grief and sorrow.

3
Then I called upon the Name of the LORD: *
"O LORD, I pray you, save my life."

10
How shall I repay the LORD *
for all the good things he has done for me?

11
I will lift up the cup of salvation *
and call upon the Name of the LORD.

12
I will fulfill my vows to the LORD *
in the presence of all his people.

13
Precious in the sight of the LORD *
is the death of his servants.

14
O LORD, I am your servant; *
I am your servant and the child of your handmaid;
you have freed me from my bonds.

15
I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving *
and call upon the Name of the LORD.

16
I will fulfill my vows to the LORD *
in the presence of all his people,

17
In the courts of the LORD'S house, *
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!

1 Peter 1:17-23

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Luke 24:13-35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?"

They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

+ Marks the Spot

2011-04-14T09:43:00.001-07:00

Growing up in Kansas I saw my share of rainbows that arched across the sky in colors that were vivid at one moment and fading away at the next. Young children are often told stories about rainbows that stay with them even into adolescence, like the one about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Have you ever tried to find the end of a rainbow? Have you ever wanted to make such a journey just to see if it were true or not?

There is something about a search for things of value that seems to capture the human imagination whether it is a pot of gold or the fountain of youth or prince or princess with whom to fall in love, we seem always to be hoping for something of value to enhance our lives or provide us with health, wealth, status, love, or control over our destiny.

We may not be following rainbows for pots of gold that will make us secure and able to have whatever we want or looking for a fountain whose water will give us youth, or looking for a prince amongst the frogs or a princess waiting for a kiss to bring her back to life, but we do search for such things in most of the choices we make during our lives.

Here is something to consider as we prepare for this Sunday that celebrates Jesus’ joyful entry into Jerusalem followed by his betrayal, arrest, trial, suffering, and death of the cross. Perhaps these acts of worship on Palm/Passion Sunday represent an alternative story to the tales we tell of rainbows with pots of gold, fountains of youth, princes and princesses, and other myths that propel us through our daily lives towards what we have come to call life.

The end of Lent is near. We are coming to that thin place in time and space called Jerusalem when and where the infinite God will be found on a cross and where, as in the creation, he will exhale the gift of life.

On the cross, we will discover that the God of our creation, preservation, and redemption has been pouring out God life on us every single moment and moment between moments of our lives. The cross is not the only act that redeems us and it is not the final act of redemption. It is rather the moment of clarity for us about who God is.

Is God faking his presence on the cross? Is he acting powerless and self-giving or is God genuinely and authentically the one who does not count equality with the human notion of God, pots of gold at the end of rainbows, fountains of youth, princes or princesses, or unlimited power and control a thing to be grasped?

What is revealed on the cross in Jesus’ death is God doing what God always does: giving of life and love to create all that is seen and unseen by exhaling the breath of life with no expectation of return. Jesus is God incarnate and at the beginning of his death he did what God continues to do, he breathed his last and said: “Father into your hands I surrender my spirit.”

The cross marks the spot where we can see who God is and what God does so that we can begin to see God at work in the whole creation. God is not out to overpower us or bribe us or threaten us. God is doing what God always does: He is exhaling the breath of life and love into creation as if it were the last breath.

Did Lazarus Have Anything to Say?

2011-04-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

You know that if there had been a National Inquirer back then the reporter would have asked Lazarus what it was like to be dead; how he felt about being dead; did he have any bad feelings towards Jesus for not getting to him before he died; what happened when he was coming back from the dead; and what did he have to say now that he was alive again. After all, inquiring people want to know such things.

But is that really what the story of the raising of Lazarus is all about? If we extend our reading beyond this story just a bit, we discover that a certain religious leader spoke the operative words of our world cult as he upbraided his colleagues for their ignorance of the way things really work in the world. Caiphas said: ‎

"Don't you know anything? Can't you see that it's to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?" (John 11:49-52)

How many dead are there who have been thrown on the sacrificial crosses of our cult to give us just a little more time, a little less than real peace, a little less life than we had before? What might they have to say to us? Do we want to hear what they have to say? It is not hard to understand why horror movies feature zombies, the living dead, and why film always suggests that we see them as the dead we do not wish to ever see or hear from again.

So, what happens when our world cult of sacrifice throws the creator of all that is seen and unseen on that cross? What does the dead, but risen Jesus say when he is raised from the dead? Can we bear to hear what he has to say? Is he like Jason, the never-to-die zombie, that goes around killing others or does he say something to us from the cross that is repeated after he returns from death?
Lazarus remains silent to us. We do not have a National Inquirers’ interview with him or any written record of what this once dead man had to say about his experience. Unlike, Jesus, Lazarus comes out of the grave still wrapped in the garment of death, the burial wrap.

Four days in the grave made the mere touching of Lazarus a terrifying experience that would render them unclean, yet Jesus commands those who were present to unbind him and let him loose. To unbind and to loose is the power to forgive which is the power to live in God’s creation as flawed, imperfect human beings with other flawed and imperfect human beings.

Why didn’t Jesus simply unbind and let loose Lazarus himself. Why not finish the job. This last part of raising Lazarus from the dead is the responsibility of the community. Just as Jesus later comes to his disciples and empowers them to bind and loose the sins of others, so now, he asks the community that has witnessed the bringing back to life of Lazarus to unbind and set him loose.

Why must the community do this? When death comes to a member of the community whether by illness or human violence the fear of death preaches a powerful sermon that we all hear. We have been trained to see and hear that death is the punishment for sin or whatever you want to call it. We have been baptized into the cult of sacrifice. We have a deep and abiding common desire to not hear what the dead have to say to us. Death is the final frontier, a place that is hopeless and without the possibility of redemption.

It is to confront those fears that Jesus would have us unbind and set loose and this act of unbinding and loosing is really not to benefit Lazarus as it is to set us free from the fears that keep us fearful and in the valley of the shadow of death. We are the ones who need the power of forgiveness to live outside the cult of sacrifice that is the foundation of all human culture.

What does Jesus say from the cross that we need to hear. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” When Jesus declares his work on the cross completed (it is finished) he breathes out a final time, releasing the power of creation to complete the work in us that he completed on the cross.

When Jesus meets his disciples in the upper room where they are still locked in fear of death, he breathes on them and says to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He gives them the power to unbind, to set loose. He also allows that they have the power to bind too. The power to forgive is the power to bring life where there has been death and the fear of death.

If we do not forgive, we continue to be bound to this fear of death that may have left Lazarus standing in the midst of people who would not unbind him or set him free. This seventh of the signs of John’s Gospel brings us to the cross and invites us to make a decision to bind or unbind ourselves, forgive or remain unforgiven in response to the crucified and yet alive Jesus.

His word to us before and after the cross calls us to a life without fear of death and the dead. Will be remain locked into the fear that makes Caiphas’ rule, the only way we can survive or will we seek God’s deeper path to true peace and fullness of life. Lazarus will not say a word to us, but his presence among us demands a response to either forgive and be forgiven or to remain bound to fear and unforgiveness for ourselves and others.

The Story of the Man Formerly Known as Blind

2011-03-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

There have been times in my life when people I have known have changed physically in rather dramatic ways. One such transformation was a young girl whose eyesight from her earliest years almost made her legally blind. She wore thick glasses in order to be able to see well enough to function in the sighted world.

I came to recognize her by her thick glasses. That was the most obvious thing about her features that I focused on. Five years past and this young girl turned into a young woman and science created contact lenses that made her old glasses no long necessary. The first time I saw her after those years had past, I did not recognize her. I had only known her by her glasses. It took me a while to see her differently.

Just so, there is an argument that breaks out over whether or not the man born blind in our Gospel reading for Sunday is the man who can now see. The man formerly known as blind becomes the subject of an argument among his neighbors who have known him a very long time. Is he the same guy they have perhaps helped get water from the well, or guided into the synagogue, or assisted him as he walked outside of the village?

This is the first of several conflicts that arise due to Jesus' healing of this man. What started the movement that led to his healing? A simple question by Jesus' disciples: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Did you ever wonder why we seem to want to provide an easy answer for difficult and complex questions or that once we have settled on an easy answer we seem to lack the capacity to see things any differently? I had a hard time recognizing the young girl with the coke bottle glasses once she was no longer wearing them. For me, her identity was defined by her glasses. I never asked her, but I often wonder if it took her a while to really see herself differently when she looked into a mirror.

I really don't need to ask her this question. I can ask myself. When I look in a mirror or in the eyes of others who mirror back to me who they see, do I notice any changes? Do I have the capacity to see changes in me that I may or may not particularly like? Is that the blindness that Jesus speaks about in this lengthy drama about healing?

Please read the whole story below. I have set it up as a bit of a play with actors playing the various roles. See if you can understand the concerns that each of the characters express.

For example, Jesus heals on the Sabbath and those who are trying to maintain the identity of what it means to be Jewish see his action as undermining the Sabbath law that demands that we rest on that day because God rested on that day.

In our country there used to be secular laws that enforced no work on Sundays so that people would be “forced” to rest. For most people who claimed to be Christians, going to church was what you did on the Sabbath and since the Christians were the majority in most communities, they passed laws making all citizens rest on that day.

In addition, it was considered good for the country that we all rested and went to church on Sunday. It improved our moral and civic life. It brought families together in prayer and worship. It allowed those who had worked and hard days to have a time of rest.

Consider the state of the Sabbath today. Do we want to have places to go and do we want people working on this day? Do we want to be able to play soccer or baseball or go to the beach rather than being forced to go to church? Do we want the right to determine what rest means to us?

Do you begin to understand how important Sabbath was to those who charged Jesus with violating the Sabbath when he healed the man born blind? What gave him the right to do such a thing? Remember, he was not seen as God or God’s son or any sort of an accepted establishment teacher.

As you read this drama, watch how the man formerly known as blind comes to see himself differently. See how he responds to those who challenge him. See how finds Jesus and how their conversation allows him to see himself and Jesus very differently. See the consequences for his changing identity and understanding. Can you identify with him or with any of the other characters in this story?

John 9:1-41

Narrator: As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,

Disciples: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Narrator: Jesus answered,

Jesus: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

Narrator: When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him,

Jesus: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam"

Narrator: (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask,

The Neighbors: "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?"

Narrator: Some were saying,

Some Said: "It is he."

Narrator: Others were saying,

Others Who Were Saying: "No, but it is someone like him."

Narrator: He kept saying,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "I am the man."

Narrator: But they kept asking him,

Others Who Were Saying: "Then how were your eyes opened?"

Narrator: He answered,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, `Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."

Narrator: They said to him,

Others Who Were Saying: "Where is he?"

Narrator: He said,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "I do not know."

Narrator: They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see."

Narrator: Some of the Pharisees said,

Some of the Pharisees: "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath."

Narrator: But others said,

Others: "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?"

Narrator: And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man,

Pharisees: "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened."

Narrator: He said,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "He is a prophet."

Narrator: Most of the religious leadership did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them,

Religious Leaders: "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

Narrator: His parents answered,

Parents: "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."

Narrator: His parents said this because they were afraid of the religious leaders; for these leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said,

Parents: "He is of age; ask him."

Narrator: So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him,

Pharisees: "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner."

Narrator: He answered,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

Narrator: They said to him,

Pharisees: "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

Narrator: He answered them,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?"

Narrator: Then they reviled him, saying,

Pharissees: "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."

Narrator: The man answered,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

Narrator: They answered him,

Pharisees: "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?"

Narrator: And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said,

Jesus: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

Narrator: He answered,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him."

Narrator: Jesus said to him,

Jesus: "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he."

Narrator: He said,

Man Formerly Known as Blind: "Lord, I believe."

Narrator: And he worshiped him. Jesus said,

Jesus: "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind."

Narrator: Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him,

Some of the Pharisees: "Surely we are not blind, are we?"

Narrator: Jesus said to them,

Jesus: "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, `We see,' your sin remains."

"IS GOD AMONG US OR NOT?"

2011-03-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

GR Lent III March 27, 2011

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

According to our collect (prayer) for this Sunday, God knows something about us that we may not know about ourselves or even be willing to admit. Most of us don't like the notion that we are powerless to help ourselves. The ad that targets my generation and those just ahead of me with the image of a senior citizen on the ground who cries out, "I’ve fallen down and can't get up," offers the promise of always having help when we find ourselves in a helpless situation.

We have great fear in the face of powerlessness. Sometimes rather than admit that the circumstances of our personal or corporate lives are out of our power to control what may be disastrous outcomes, we seek other ways of behaving or thinking that divert and distract us from what threatens us. Such "defense mechanisms" can be healthy and result in very good changes. Of course, there also other human responses that can be maladaptive and can produce great personal and global suffering and death.

Our collect asks for God's help in the face of the powerlessness we face when earthquakes and tsunamis strike or when such forces of nature place us in jeopardy due to our previous choices to harness nuclear energy in facilties such as those found in Japan and around the world. The collect asks for the kind of divine presence and support that can help us deal with whatever helpless and powerless times we experience.

Consider how many things you may be feeling powerless over right now. Make a list by simply filling in the blank:

Today I feel powerless over ________________.

Once you have put a few items on this list, write down the specifics that make you feel powerless and then write down what you might do to deal with the situation. There will be times when there may not be anything you can do to change the circumstances of your life. In just such times, our collect asks God to keep us.

What does it mean to ask God to keep us? If you keep something or someone in your life you are in relationship with the thing or the person. To be kept in someone’s heart is a powerful experience and necessary for our physical and spiritual survival. To not have someone who loves us and keeps us in this way is to experience a sort of hopelessness that can destroy not only our physical being, but our spiritual wholeness.

Just so, our collect is asking God to maintain a relationship with us as individuals and as a community. Of course, to pray for God to keep us also means that we are open and willing to keep God in our lives. Without God is our lives and in the life of our families and communities and the world, we find that we will resort to those ancient human systems that result in the loss of soul.

Being a child is a time of real powerlessness. Here is an interesting quote that addresses what happens when a child is deprived of love in their powerlessness:

“To be loved is every human's greatest need. How do we know? Because in the 19th century and through about 1920, nearly 100% of babies abandoned to institutions died, not from lack of food or sanitation, but from lack of love.James L. Halliday, a psychiatrist who studied psychosocial issues in medicine, concluded that ‘infants deprived of their accustomed maternal body contact may develop a profound depression with lack of appetite, wasting, and even marasmus [wasting away] leading to death’ Doctors realized that babies need to be loved, that is held, cuddled, caressed, and carried. When institutional procedures began to include loving and cuddling, as well as bathing, feeding, and changing, the abandoned infants began to thrive. A malnourished baby who is loved will fight harder to live than a well-fed but neglected infant. Older people also fight harder to live if they know they are loved. A gentle touch is vital to a dying person because it conveys love. Love is the food of our souls. Humanly speaking, we need love to thrive.”

Madeline Pecora Nugent and Julian Stead, OSB

To be loved by God is to be kept and to be strengthened for whatever life brings our way. It is not just infants who die from lack of human and divine nurturing. And so, when we come together to worship each week we come into the presence of God whose ways of nurturing us and defending us from our powerlessness over the situations of our lives comes in the form of a community that is continually being formed to be loved and to share that love with others.

The best defense for our bodies and our souls when we face adversities is found in God’s nurturing love that draws us to worship and to love and serve one another. Love strengthens us and gives us hope in the face of difficult and sometimes impossible situations.

The damage to the human soul when we are faced with our own powerlessness is not inflicted by the out of control circumstances that we either foster or that come our way, but from how we deal with those circumstances.

The collect speaks about evil thoughts that assault and harm the soul in the midst of our powerlessness. Over and over again throughout human history we have seen human beings act out those evil thoughts. What assaults and harms the soul are those thoughts which suggest to us that our powerlessness or our physical problems are caused by this person or group of persons. Once such thoughts take hold in a person or a community all manner of evil can be carried out and justified.

Certainly there are times when another person’s actions can negatively impact us. Even those times when we are clearly hurt by someone else can poison us with thoughts of revenge born out of a long simmering resentment. Resentments and desire for revenge will not change what has already happen to us, but these double demons can lead to a toxic way of being that damages us from the inside out.

This reflection comes to an end here with an invitation to those who read it to look at the times you have experienced in your life that this prayer addresses. Wrestle with what the prayer says and with what I have written as they may bring up feelings, thoughts, and stories from you.

Prayers invite us to enter into the conversation with God. What I have written comes from my own personal experiences. What might you have to say to God or to yourself about your own powerlessness and your need for help when you are helpless?

To further your prayerful consideration consider this story from Exodus which explores the helplessness and powerlessness of Israel in the wilderness.

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?”

A sure sign that we do not believe that God is with us is how we treat one another when facing difficult circumstances such as the people of Israel faced in the wilderness. The Exodus story might lead us to believe that the people only had a quarrel with Moses, their leader, but I would like to suggest that before they turned on Moses, they had already turned on one another and were attacking each other over the quickly diminishing water supplies.

From the chaos of everyone fighting against everyone else, a violent and pernicious movement to regain peace and unity emerged. The violent individuals became a mob looking for someone to blame in the midst of their powerlessness. This is where we pick up the story in Exodus with Moses being the one the mob goes after. Moses asks two very revealing and challenging questions to the mob in response to their demand for water:

“Why do you quarrel with me?” and “Why do you test the Lord?”

Moses’ first question challenges the very process of the mob seeking to regain peace and unity by blaming someone. Moses is clearly in the same boat as they are as far as not having water. I would imagine that if he had water to give the mob, he would have gladly given it to them to spare himself the grief. Quarreling would not make things any better as far as the water shortage was concerned, but it would be a way of avoiding the greater violence that had been going on as the water supplies went to zero and the people went after one another.

The authors of Exodus show the human system of dealing with violence and disunity in this brief story and they do it brilliantly. Moses’ first question challenges our human system of regaining peace and unity by blaming and focusing our wrath on one individual or a group of individuals. Most of the stories of antiquity do not give potential victims of this mob in search or unity and peace a voice, but Exodus does.

Moses’ first question is about how our human systems train us to behave (anthropology), but his second question points to the larger theological issue of whether Israel believed in the God they had credited with delivering them from slavery. Jesus goes out into the wilderness to be tested, just as Israel was led into the wilderness by Moses. Jesus was asked to reject God (If you are the Son of God questions) and to deny God’s presence. If we fall into that trap, we will soon find ourselves with only one recourse in the midst of powerlessness that leads to individual violence and the mob violence that promises to restore the peace and unify us.

So, Moses' theological question is related to this first anthropological question because without a sense of God being present among us, we are left to follow those very human ways of dealing with human wrath. The question of whether God is present or not suggests that God’s way of dealing with human powerlessness, fear, and chaos is very different from what we do if we do not believe God is present. If God abides with us, is present in us and among us, we know intuitively and can see how utterly different our ways are from God’s ways.

I invite you to read the rest of the assigned lessons for this Sunday and see if Moses’ questions appear in different forms in the psalm, the Epistle, and the Gospel.

Psalm 95 Page 724, 725, BCP
Venite, exultemus

1 Come, let us sing to the LORD; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

3 For the LORD is a great God, * and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the LORD our Maker.

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

8 Harden not your hearts, as your forebears did in the wilderness, * at Meribah, and on that day at Massah, when they tempted me.

9 They put me to the test, * though they had seen my works.

10 Forty years long I detested that generation and said, * "This people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know my ways."

11 So I swore in my wrath, * "They shall not enter into my rest."

Romans 5:1-11

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Good or Doing Good in Service for Others?

2011-03-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between being good and doing good? If I need to believe that I am good then everything I do must somehow be judged to be good by me and those around me. If I simply do good things then does it really matter how others may define me or even how I define myself?

Whether I am perceived as good or evil by me or others is ultimately unimportant. I say this because good and evil are really about what other people need to believe about us or what we need to believe about ourselves. How many of us really want to be perceived as evil? Are we able to bear the perception of such a label? How horrible it would feel if every time we came to school or work or home we were seen by others as a threat, a malevolent presence the sight of which caused others to turn against us and plot our destruction through violence by the group or through elimination by some other means?

Is it possible that the need to be seen as good results in the powerful need to judge others less generously? Jesus was once approached by a young man who was interested in following him. The young man approached Jesus with this greeting: "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus immediately corrects the young man's perception of him: "No one is good, but God alone." Why did Jesus act so strongly to this rather complementary greeting?

I think that Jesus responded this way because he understood that the power to declare him good was also the power that would soon be exercised to perceive him as evil and worthy of death. Ultimately Jesus was condemned to death, not for what he did or did not do, but for how he was perceived. It was this same "garden variety" power that we see disclosed in Genesis where the need to be seen as good resulted in blame and shame and condemnation.

During Lent we can ask God to reveal to us how much our personal and corporate sense of goodness is based upon others being identified as "not us." We can say with Jesus that only God is truly good out of whom all that is good flows. We can ask God to free us from having to see the flaws of others to avoid seeing our own flaws.

So, the young man's initial judgment was based upon Jesus' current popularity that would soon vanish once he entered Jerusalem and challenged the whole sacrificial system which was built upon our human addiction to being seen as good at the expense of others. Jesus challenged the young man to do good for others rather than being viewed as good by others. For the young man, being wealthy was one of the signs that made him think that he was good. Jesus challenges the young man's sense of goodness by offering him a chance to do good by giving away his source of being good, his wealth.

Jesus then invited the young man to follow him. What a "catch 22" for the young man. Jesus called him to give up the one thing that kept him from being cursed by poverty and made invisible, dispensable, and voiceless by others. Who would listen to him or respect him if he were one of the poor? He would be one of "not us" with no one to hear his cries for help.
Alas, the rich young man went away in sadness, not anger, at having been put on the spot by Jesus' impossible request.

During Lent we are asked to make a decision like the rich young man: will we walk away angry or in sorrow when we hear Jesus’ call to follow him? Along this path we will discover our own limitations and our own unwillingness to leave behind our belief that we are good compared to others. During Lent we are asked to love those who are "not us" and to know their suffering by seeing and hearing them. We might begin by seeing and hearing the people who decided that it is better that one person should die than that the whole nation should perish. Do we believe in this same logic?

In the Nicene and Apostles' creeds, Pontius Pilate is the man under whom Jesus "suffered, died, and was buried." Do we understand how his decision to crucify Jesus is in some ways like our willingness to let others die so that we can be happy by having all that we desire?

We live in the same mythological world as those who abandoned, betrayed, denied, and engineered the death of this Jesus of Nazareth so long as we insist that Jesus was good and that the people who killed him are "not us" and therefore, evil and that all who don't share our beliefs or who threaten us in any way are deserving of the label, evil. As Christians we are committed to doing good in service to others and standing with those who are perceived as evil even when to do so puts us at risk of being labeled a threat and evil too.

The Lenten journey of following Jesus will bring us to the heart and mind of God that Jesus lived out in his life. This is a journey of seeing, hearing, praying, and reflecting on the times in which we live and then taking action to be of service to those who are “not us.”

EASTER OUR WEDNESDAY

2011-03-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

Marked by Ashes
Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.

This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.

This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.

We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
you Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

Walter Brueggemann (b. 1933)

Welcome to the Gospel Zone

2011-03-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

A deep and resonant voice is heard and visual and auditory cues come toward you and here are the words that were spoken over these sights and sounds:

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.” Opening of Twilight Zone T.V. series (season I)

When the Twilight Zone logo broke apart a scene would emerge featuring someone who was headed to the Twilight Zone followed by Rod Serling, with gray smoke curling up from the cigarette in his hand, introducing the story that was about to unfold in the Twilight Zone.

As we enter the last week of the season of Epiphany we will hear a somewhat strange story read as our Gospel. Of course, those who have been raised up in the church may not think of it as strange, but Jesus taking a few of his disciples up on a mountain top where a bright light and dark cloud envelopes them and the ancient law giver and prophet Moses and Elijah appear next to him really is something out of the ordinary to say the least.

What can we make of this story? Are we supposed to challenge the facts of the story or is there something grander in store for those who are willing to truly listen to what the story is saying? The Gospel, like the Twilight Zone, invites us into a different dimension where our senses are engaged, but where the landscape and other details of the story do not make sense to our usual way of seeing and hearing things.

We are taken to this Gospel Zone to allow our senses to participate in a transformative experience in a place called the Kingdom of Heaven where the usual rules no longer apply and where the way of being human is found to be very different from what we might have expected.

The transfiguration is just such a story. It is not a story to prove to Jesus that he is the beloved Son of God, but rather is intended for us to experience a particular sort of light and sound as a community that will guide us through the darkness we find on our earthly pilgrimage.

This story comes each year on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent. Lent is a time when the Christian community and the individual members of the community focus on the things in our life as a church and in our individual lives that block our vision of the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is a time of disciplined paying attention to the suffering and needs around us and the part we can play in responding to those needs in prayer and in taking action to relieve that suffering. But it is also a time when we look at our sins and sometimes painfully admit them to ourselves in our General Confession and in our personal prayers and examination of our individual lives.

Jesus takes us to the mountain top and for a brief moment we meet Elijah and Moses. These two men represent how it is possible to live in a relationship with God that is noteworthy as much for what they got right as for what they got terribly wrong.
Moses and Elijah, in zealousness both killed people they saw as abusing slaves and sacrificing children to satisfy the god of sacrificial culture. They were both murderers for what they thought was God’s cause.

So, why would two murderers be chosen to meet on the mountain top with the non-violent Jesus of Nazareth? In the Gospel Zone where the Kingdom of Heaven comes into focus for a moment, we may be tempted to focus on the spectacular show of light and dark clouds, but there is something going on in this time away from our usual view of things that is being communicated.

During Lent and during our life as a Christian community and our lives as members of the community that forms around Jesus, we are being called to see and hear beyond what might startle or distract us. We are called to enter into the conversation with God that we see on the mountain top.

We, like Peter, may misspeak. We may misunderstand the sights and sounds that flood us in the Gospel Zone and we may end up chasing after the sights and sounds of the stories we read in the Gospel, but it is certain that we will be changed by our visit to that holy place and moved closer to God.

The only way to avoid this transformation of body, mind, and spirit is to not journey up the mountain. Once we have visited the Gospel Zone, we will be changed in ways we cannot now imagine.

Welcome to the Gospel Zone.

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days after Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

Don't Worry: A Call to Serve a Loving God

2011-02-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

The Antidote for Fear:Fear and worry isolate us from others and oftentimes makes us see others as enemies. To combat fear God calls us together without exclusions of anyone to hold hands and to pray and work together for the Kingdom of heaven.

Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

What do you fear losing the most—the loss of a loving God or your personal wealth, reputation, or health? In our world staying alive depends upon staying healthy and maintaining a reputation of honesty, integrity, and a good work ethic in order to earn enough money to pay bills and to support one’s self and family.

So, why does Jesus tell his disciples not to worry about where the next meal, clothing, or housing will come from? Is Jesus saying that God will pick up the tab for whatever we need? Are we to simply trust God to deliver and give up working for our daily bread?

Jesus does not tell his disciples not to work, he tells them not to worry about the necessities of life. What does he mean by that invitation to a care-free life? From my first job selling newspapers on the streets of Hermosa Beach until today, I have worked sometimes two or three jobs at once to pay the bills. During that time I have known times of panic, but I always knew that we would get by and survive.

Today there are many families across this country and around the world that face economic uncertainties that are beyond their control. There are people who genuinely want to work who cannot find a job that will support their families. I know of several families who have had to leave the South Bay due to economic conditions and relocate to less expensive locations where they hope to find employment.

The people who were listening to Jesus that day were not wealthy and their economic and political life was meeker. The Roman Empire sucked much of the wealth out of Israel and the other territories it conquered, but built roads, aqueducts, and government buildings to govern and capitalize on their empire. These improvements not only allowed Roman troops to move quickly through their territories, but also allowed for lucrative trade routes to be established. The Romans were also the peace keepers of their empire. In a sense, despite the Roman military’s often brutal ways, it did keep the peace and allow for stability.

As we watch the turmoil and unrest in the Middle East move from country to country and hear the cries for the elimination of this leader or that one, we also see how such turmoil threatens the economic stability of the entire world. This morning (Thursday) speculation about the rising price of oil was being broadcast with predictions of higher gas prices at the pump and a huge negative impact on our economy.

Perhaps we are not so unlike Jesus’ listeners. We, too, are economically dependent on forces that are global. We understand why many people in Israel at the time of Jesus, while not liking Roman domination, accepted it as the price for economic stability. The zealots hated the Romans and used violence to try to throw them out of Israel, but most people just wanted to live quiet and peaceful lives raising their families under the Peace of Rome.

Jesus is not pushing people to rebel or to resign themselves to lives of quiet desperation. Instead he is offering them and us and new way of living, not out of fear of things that are out of our control, but out of a love of what Jesus called the Kingdom of God.

Jesus tells us that God does not threaten people with economic disaster either in this life or the next to keep them in line. He says, “Don’t worry about such things” not because they are unimportant, but because for fear of loss, we often do things or fail to do things out of that fear.

Our collect for this Sunday speaks about our fears and faith. The collect invites us to look at how our fears and worldly anxieties have caused us to not see the larger picture of God’s kingdom of love.

For example:

Has the goal of being a high value economic unit (a person whose value to the employer is high) resulted in behavior that has done harm to self or to others?

Has the goal of keeping a job led you to undermine the perceived value of another employee?

Has the need for being number one in school resulted in behavior such as cheating on tests, homework, or papers?

Has our national goal of keeping gas prices low resulted in policies that have negatively impacted people in other parts of the world?

Could you offer other questions that would reveal times in your life when faith and fear came head to head? These questions are about how fear has influenced us. When we are in the process of doing such things we may not even be aware of the driving force of fear, but if others suffer to reduce our sense of loss or economic peril, fear and faith are contending for our decision of who will be our master.

It is not really wealth that is the master Jesus places opposite God, but our fears of not surviving, of not being secure and permanent. Wealth seems to be the only way to relieve our fears, but in seeking it collectively, our fears can create a world of great wealth and great poverty.

Our collect reminds us that our future is in God, not in a system that instills fear, pits brothers and sister against brothers and sisters, and turns us into slaves to a most merciless and unforgiving master.

Do we choose a Loving God or a god of fear? That is the question.

Loving is what God does in the midst of what we do: But I say, Love your enemies and pray for those who are out to get you

2011-02-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some quotes I have found to be helpful in reading the part of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel that speaks to the idea that loving is what God does in the midst of what we do as a human society.

When we declare that it is easy for God or Jesus to respond to violence with love because of their shared divinity, but impossible for mere mortals, I think we miss the point that God's loving ways simply and utterly challenge our learned and traditional ways of creating a world system that excludes the true source of our being at all.

To reconnect ourselves to that core of God's love is to allow our system to slowly, but surely fail for our lack of our support for the "us against them" ways that continue to bankrupt the soul and the society in which we live. As Alison says below, creation as God's work does not know resentment and was before it.

"If Jesus were just a non-resentful victim, then he would be a good person. But we affirm more. We claim that he was the making humanly present and possible the purpose of creation, a project which simply doesn't know resentment, and is before it. This is to say that Jesus is God and that in the Eucharist we have in our midst the real presence of God made human."
James Alison

"Returnning Violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr.

"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do."
Saint Paul in his letter to the church at Rome Here is the Gospel for this Sunday:

Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus said,

"You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'

But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

"You have heard that it was said,

`You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Salt of the Earth

2011-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Matthew 5:13
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

2 Chronicles
``The Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom ... to David ... by a covenant of salt.''

Numbers xviii xiii.
“A covenant of salt . A covenant which could not be broken.”

There are medical reasons why we are warned about using too much salt, so why does Jesus tell his followers to be the salt of the earth? Have you ever seen salt go bad? Salt has an enduring quality. It continues to be true its saltiness despite being place in water, on steaks, vegetables, the human body, or even when it is mixed with earth or sea.

God is like salt. What? Yep, God is like salt. Like salt, God is enduring and it only takes a bit of God to bring out the qualities of creation that make it wondrous, lovely, awe inspiring, tasteful, harmonious and to bring creation to fulfillment. It only takes a bit of God’s saltiness in the little bit of earth called Bob or John or Steve, or Helen, or Mary or Gail to bring out God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, grace, will to serve others and to see others in need as our brothers and sisters.

So, are you like salt? Is the salt of God that is in you bringing out your god-loving, people-embracing, creation-celebrating, grace-observing and thanks-giving God life in you? Since salt cannot lose its savor and since we are all made in the image of God, we are truly the “salt of the earth.” We are dust sprinkled with the salt of God’s enduring love and character.

Of course, our saltiness can remain in the shaker. In ancient Israel and in other sacrificial people of the past, salt was placed on all sacrifices. Salt was a preservative of meat and other food items that spoiled quickly. Salt was used by the Roman Emperor to pay his soldiers because it was so valuable. In fact, our English word, “salary” comes from the Latin word for salt. Salt was used to purify things, to soften water, and to strengthen roads.

It is God who is the one whose saltiness of love and forgiveness is being poured out on the creation. Since we are made of dust or earth, the salt of the earth of which Jesus speaks is us. It is God’s faithfulness, enduring passion for a world of love and mercy and justice that God’s salt in us and on us and around us in others is being poured out.

It is God’s salt in our dust that is bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. The salt of God is bringing the creation to its fulfillment. We are the salt of the earth.

Rector’s Report

2011-01-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

There is a saying that is currently floating about in cyberspace: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The word “crisis” comes from the Greek word meaning judgment. The past two and one half years Christ Church has undergone a trial of sorts.

Our circumstances have given us a chance to see who we are as a community and as individuals. Our crisis did not go to waste. The fire allowed us to see what sort of community we are. Will we stick together and support one another when our circumstances are challenging and less than what we have had before the fire?

Will we continue to attend and support the work of the church and respond to appeals for helping others? Will we refrain from scapegoating one another by blaming or will we take responsibility for becoming part of the solution and not add to an already difficult situation?

This parish family has been judged by the challenges of the fire and the downturn of the global economy. How did we do? As your rector of almost 10 years, I think you did beautifully. The criteria of judgment is the faith we profess that is captured in our readings today and in the mission statement established by the parish before I was called to be the rector.

As we move forward into the coming year we will continue to be in crisis in a less obvious way. It is easy to see hardships and challenges as times of crisis, but less so when things are going well. We have an extraordinary opportunity in the year to come to become more and more like a community that is so in love with God and God’s ways that we want to share that love with others and build more and more upon the solid rock of God’s love and faithfulness to us.

Here is what I hope to see us doing a year from now:

1. I hope that whatever we do this year will depend upon more and more of us being involved in whatever we decide God is calling us to do. The vocation of this parish is a communal vocation. We are called to do what God calls us to do as a community. During the past two years I have seen individual members of this parish take on huge chunks of work that would have been difficult for a committee to do, but those individuals always acknowledged that they were doing this work in cooperation with and under the authority and direction of the Rector, Vestry, and Fire Recovery Team and of behalf of the community. The hard work of these individuals built community rather than tearing it down.

2. I hope that next year we will see more common meals shared together in our newly completed parish house and that these meals will allow parish families to use this space to build up the Body of Christ in this community. Our first event in the parish house was the St. Nicholas Day Feast and Spaghetti Feed and it was followed up by the Epiphany Feast and Soup/Pizza party on January 6th.

3. I hope that we will see more activities planned and implemented for our children by our wonderful group of parents and that these activities will be offered to other families who are looking for a community of faith that is inclusive and where their children will experience God’s love as it is expressed in the hospitality and acceptance of the community. All such activities need to help our children come to know God as the one who created them and all of creation, loves them each and every day of their lives and who loves all of the people of the world, and who will be with them as guide, comforter, and the one who knows them better than anyone else throughout their entire lives.

4. I hope to see our parish house being used by 12 step groups again and by other non-profit organizations. I would like for our parish house to once again be a place where citizens of this area can come and cast their ballots on election days.

5. I hope to see more young couples who are looking for a spiritual home and a place to be married or have their children baptized come to Christ Church and become part of our community.

6. I hope to see more people coming to Christ Church who are searching for a community that allows them to think about matters of faith in an honest, open, and accepting environment.

7. I hope to see more of our current members and their friends celebrate their important anniversaries by renewing their vows followed by a reception in the parish house.

8. I hope to see our junior and senior high school aged folks getting together for social, service, and times of asking questions and reflection about their faith and how it seems to fit or not fit into the world of their understanding.

9. I hope to see our Education for Ministry program continue and grow.

10. I hope to see our choir grow and continue to lead us in spirited worship under our wonderful minister of music, David Bradfield.

11. I hope to see both younger and older members of the congregation preparing to be confirmed on June 5, 2011 when Bishop Glasspool does her visitation of the parish.

12. I hope to see more of our members engaged in either our current or new Outreach opportunities. We live in a world of need and while we cannot meet the needs of everyone, we can meet the needs of some.

13. I hope to see more of our members considering what ministries they might be called to perform including Altar Guild, Acolytes, Lay Reading, Chalice bearing, Caring for the Kitchen, Parish House, and other building and grounds activities, Ushering and Greeting people in ways that are welcoming; Intercessory Prayer; and a host of other vital ministries still to be explored.

14. I hope to see all of our members doing the ministry of evangelism—sharing the Good News that God is love and that we are a community of faith that tries to live this Good News out in all that we do.

15. I hope to see a renewed commitment to worship by all of our members and to do alternative scheduling to include those whose Sundays are taken up by work, sports, and other commitments. Of course, this means that we, as a community, will need to find a way of making these alternative times work for the largest number of people.

16. Finally and foundational to all that I have written, I hope that our faith as individuals and as a community will grow deeper, richer, and more fully and bear fruit in our personal life and in the life of our community. Our Gospel for Epiphany IV sums up the life of God offered by Jesus to those who would follow him in the path of love. I pray that in the coming year, we will all know the blessings of this path.

Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

THE MATRIX OF GOD'S LOVE

2011-01-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Did you ever receive a phone call out of the blue that resulted in a major change in your life? Perhaps a seemingly chance meeting with someone who ends up being a life-time friend started in a very ordinary and hardly spectacular way. That is the way that God begins a relationship with us. God reaches out to each one of us, calls us by name, and invites us to become part of the matrix of God, the net that supports, upholds and allows us to become friends of God and of all of God’s children.

The picture of part of our main window in the church expresses this reality. It shows the matrix, the net, in which the church building sits. The church building is where we gather to worship. It is the place where we celebrate God in our lives and in the life of the world. It is where we realize our community being upheld by God’s matrix of love and forgiveness. People who know they are loved and forgiven become more loving and forgiving people and as this happens the matrix of God grows beyond this community of faith and into the whole creation.

Many of us, who are part of this parish, came here because of this little white building. It called out to us as we passed by in our cars, bicycles, or as we walked or ran. You came inside and found the real treasure that this little bit of heaven holds—a community of people being loved and forgiven into the Kingdom of God.

Such a community is God’s “marvelous work” and the lives of those “caught” in this matrix of God’s love proclaim in word and deed the Good News of how God has brought wholeness of body, mind, and spirit to them. It is through the lives such every day saints who are well known and others who are less well known that the Good News is spreading.

The Good News we proclaim is about salvation. What is salvation? My understanding of salvation is that it is about living our lives as if death is not the final reality and it is this salvation reality which gives us the freedom to act in ways that can challenge and change the world.

If salvation is something sought as a way of cheating death and hell and gaining heaven by simply accepting Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior it is a gift that cannot bring salvation to the whole world. We are given the grace of salvation to be part of God’s vision of bringing heaven to earth and bringing us alive to love, serve, and live in God’s kingdom of justice and reconciliation. Receiving the gift of salvation is not just about a pass to heaven, it is about allowing what makes heaven worth desiring to enter into the world through our life as a community both large and small and sharing it with others.

On Sunday we will give thanks for how this matrix of God’s love that we have experienced during the past two and one half years. Ever since the fire hit the parish house this net of God's love has supported us, encouraged us, worked on our behalf, and loved us through the challenges of this time.

This matrix is not just at Christ Church, but is cast all over the earth. We will offer thanks for our brothers and sisters of this diocese beginning with Bishop Jon Bruno, David Tumilty, John Tucker, Richard Zevnik , Ted Forbath, the members of the Corporation of the Diocese, the other staff at the diocese who have played a greater or smaller part in helping Christ Church come to this day of celebration and the opportunities of proclaiming the Good News and spreading them the matrix of God’s Kingdom more and more in this community.

We will offer thanks for the fine fire fighters of the Redondo Beach Fire Department, our neighbor Alba Maza who alerted the fire department of the fire and probably saved us from greater loss, for Bob Nelson and Gail Connolly and the whole Fire Recovery Team, for the members of the vestry who have served during these past almost three years, our wonderful architect, Dan Young, the amazing Van Crest Construction team led by Jim Van Dyke and Kenny Sumner. Dan, Jim, and Kenny all see their work as ministry. They are part of the wide matrix of God’s love in which we have lived and moved and had our being these past few years. The subcontractors also seemed to work as if what they were doing was God’s work. They worked hard and competently to make this space of the parish house an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace that is the soul of this community of faith.

Finally, the community of Christ Church will be celebrated and given thanks for this Sunday because you have kept the faith and have shown yourselves to be the Body of Christ in this part of God’s growing matrix of love. When challenges in life hit a group of people it sometimes brings out the worst in individuals with blaming, shaming, and resentments mounting and destroying relationships. That this has not happened at Christ Church is a strong witness to the presence of God living in each of you and in this community of faith.

We have much for which to give thanks this Sunday and every day.

God’s Peace in the Matrix of God’s Love,

Bob+

Golf, Sin, and Sins

2011-01-13T21:42:00.000-08:00

John 1:29-42

John saw Jesus coming toward him

This is the first part of the first sentence in Sunday’s Gospel from John. Now substitute your name for John’s name in this phrase. “Bob saw Jesus coming toward him.”

Now imagine that this scene with you in it is not by the Jordan River, but in a court room where Jesus is on trial and you are sitting on the witness stand having just been asked this question: “Do you know this man and what have you got to say about him?”

What would any of us have to say upon seeing Jesus coming towards us as a man on trial for his life? As witnesses, what would we have to say about him? What first hand experiences of Jesus would you be able to offer to answer the question of who Jesus is?

This may be a tough question since none of us were alive and present during Jesus’ life and there are no living witnesses left from whom we might have gotten a second hand witness to share. Even so, such testimony would be considered “hearsay” and not be acceptable to the court.

But we do have witnesses who were present during Jesus’ life and who have offered us their testimony. John the Baptist is one such witness. He did not testify in a court of law, but his words surely did end up being entered into the record of human history. So, what did John say about Jesus? Here is the rest of that first sentence:
…and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Notice that John does not say that Jesus is the scapegoat of humanity or even the lamb of humanity offered to God to appease his wrath and anger towards sinful humanity, but that Jesus is God’s offering of love and reconciliation to a wrathful and angry humanity.

Notice also that John does not say that Jesus takes away the “sins” of the world, but rather the “sin” of the world. Is there a difference?
Imagine a golfer who continually hits his or her drive to the left, to the right, or misses the ball altogether. Each of these failures to hit the ball towards the pin or even where the golfer intended to hit it could be called “sins.” Why? Because the word sin means to miss the mark and so many of us who have played golf know what it means to be a sinner who commits sins on the golf course.

This may seem silly and rather beside the point when it comes to the more serious and deadly outcomes of sins committed by each of us either knowingly or unknowingly, but it might just be a good way of getting the difference between “sins” and the “sin” that Johns says Jesus came to take away from the world.

If I focus on the sins of my attempts of hitting the mark rather than the cause for the sins I might say, “well, since I hit the ball to the right, I will turn my whole body to the left and hit the ball in that direction to correct the flight of the ball?” In so doing, I am making an assumption about this particular “sin” of going too far to the right that will only mean that I will commit the sin of hitting the ball too far to the left. And when I reposition my body again I may find that I swing over the ball and the wind from the club head blows the ball of f of the tee.

I have just described a typical day on the golf course for myself where my golf sins were many and the number of strokes to the pin were more than many. For that reason, I tend not to golf all that often, if at all and find the game maddening.

Just so, many of us discover our lives filled with sins in the way we live. The Ten Commandments are fine “guidelines” for behavior, but what these commandments really seek to do is to point not to just the sins, but to the greater sin that is the source of all sins. Jesus summed up the laws and the prophets with just two: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Do you wonder why people lie, steal, cheat, bear false witness against their neighbors, covet what others have, fail to honor and respect their parents, or murder one another? That is the sin which Jesus came to take away from us. The sin of not knowing that what we pretend to be justified behavior towards one another is not.

Jesus died upon the cross as God’s lamb to save us from our sin of not knowing when murdering our neighbor is a sin whether done in the name of God or of national security or for any other justification we might conjure up. As he died, Jesus said: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

During the season of Epiphany this excuse of not knowing is taken away from us by the Lamb of God and we are offered forgiveness as the way we can hit the mark of loving God and our neighbor. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world grants us God’s peace which can only be purchased by the God giving the life that created us as a light to allow for the new creation to emerge.

So, I come back to the first words of the first sentence of our Gospel today: “Bob saw Jesus coming towards him.” Before I can bear witness as John bore witness that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, I must stop trying to wrestle with each and every sin or missed or even successful attempts at justifying myself and simply experience the Epiphany of not knowing and the forgiveness of my ignorance that leads to the new creation and the life of loving God and my neighbor.

Epiphany is the season of coming to know not the sins of others, but to understand the sin that blocks us from knowing our part in missing the mark by only seeing the sins of others.

As the Eucharistic prayer says:

In him(Christ), you have delivered us from evil, and made us worthy
to stand before you. In him, you have brought us out of error
into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.

When the light of Epiphany goes on we see the evil of seeing only the sins of others and we are delivered from the evil that enslaves us. We are able to stand up right and before God because prior to the light going on we would sooner crucify Christ than see God in him. In Christ we may still commit sins against others, but we are brought out of the error of believing that we are never wrong in any serious way. In Christ we are moved out of the sin of ignorance and brought into the world of living in love and peace with our neighbors and with God (righteousness) and that way of being human is called not death, but life.

Epiphany is here. It is a time to yell “Fore” for the times we miss the mark of living in the light of God’s love and forgiveness. It is a time to live with a new freedom and a new vision of God’s kingdom. It is the perfect way of preparing for the penitential season of Lent.

With John the Baptist I bear witness to Christ: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

EPIPHANY IS THE UNCERTAINTY OF FAITH

2011-01-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Epiphany is about God showing us who God is. Of course, over the centuries human beings have seen God in many different ways. So for us, whether or not the picture of God we accept is accurate and true is often a matter of heated debate. Do our disagreements mean that God has failed to communicate who God is in a clear and persuasive way? Do we all have to agree in order for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven?

We live in a time when the more we know the less we seem to have any degree of certainty about ourselves or our world, much less who or what God is. Some call these times “post-modern.” I would rather call this time of uncertainty and any time like this a time of faith.

Faith is what challenges all of our human certainties that are contrary to true scientific inquiry and spiritual growth and kindness lived out in our day to day lives. Jesus lived in such a time of human certainty and his whole life challenged ideas that were considered certain and true such as:

Might makes right therefore empire is always right.
Human illness is the result of sin;
Misfortune is God punishing an individual or a group or a nation for not following God’s will;
God loves us, but not our enemies;
Forgiveness is conditional;
Evil can only be defeated by a well-armed military;
Justice will come when the rich are dispossessed and the poor take their place;
God is patiently waiting for us to change, but will one day come down to avenge all wrongs;
The poor are poor because they are not part of God’s elect;
Material success is a sign that you are God's elect;
Being good stewards of creation means that a few reap the benefit of the natural resources of the world;
I am not my responsible for helping those in need: “God helps those who help themselves;”

Perhaps you could add more certainties that faith has made less certain. What might they be?

When God reveals himself/herself to us we may debate what we think we heard or saw of her/him, but if we live by faith we will not fear uncertainty, nor will we be paralyzed by it. We will search for God among all of the perceptions and beliefs that are offered from the past and today. The Christian Epiphany of Jesus as Christ is not just one more certainty that denies faith and renders God invisible, but an icon through whom we see the very heart of God by faith without human certitude.

So, let us look at Isaiah’s vision of God as a person whom many have labeled “the suffering servant.” Is this person an individual, a group, or a nation? Isaiah does not provide us with clarity on this question, but he does seem to suggest that this servant is engaged in doing the will of God. The servant is establishing justice, that is, the servant’s mission is to make the life of God our life. Isaiah calls this life, justice. Here is what Isaiah wrote about how God’s life of justice would come to earth:

Isaiah 42:1-9

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

The opening of our passage from Isaiah on this coming Sunday sounds very much like what Jesus is reported to have seen and heard when he came up from the waters of the Jordan after being baptized by John the Baptist.

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’" (Cf. Matthew 3:13-17)

The Christian faith makes it very clear that Jesus is the ultimate answer of who the God of our creation, redemption, and blessing is. This bold belief is not simply an attempt to claim superiority of the Christian way over all other religions, but a life and death reality check for those of us who are inclined to make god into the likeness and image of human notions of power, control, and violent retribution.

Jesus is the unexpected face of God whose life lived out Isaiah's vision of God's work of justice.

Hear then the prophet continue describing a view of God and how God will bring about justice for the poor and the rich. Notice how the language offers a gentle almost barely surviving servant whose efforts to bring justice to the earth do not destroy any of God’s children whether rich or poor, judged good or evil by any standard:

“He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.”
I notice that this servant of Isaiah is so gentle that his action to bring about justice, God’s life on earth, does not even break the most fragile reed or the barely flickering flame.'

Where might one find this bruised reed or flickering flame that the servant is so careful not to break or extinguish? I look in the mirror and ask God to show me how I am a like a bruised reed or flickering wick with whom God’s servant, Jesus, is gently working to bring God’s life and justice into this little bit of earth called Bob.

I ask God to deny me the certainty that only leads to death and answers that cut off others.

I ask God to lovingly share with me what makes me so vulnerable to breaking and losing the light within me.

I ask God to shine through the darkness of my fears of uncertainty and need to control every moment.

Epiphany is about discovering what has been hidden. Sometimes God is hidden in plain sight and it is only our certainties which obscure our vision. The suffering servant of Isaiah, the Christ of Bethlehem and Golgotha come to us to establish justice on the earth and say to us: Fear not for I am with you.

The Power of Open Hearts, Known Desires, and Revealed Secrets

2010-12-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

Posted by Robert Cornner on Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 7:38am

Almighty Internet, to you all hearts are opened, all desires known and from you no secrets are hid; purge, cleanse, and delete the thoughts of our hearts that we might avoid all embarrassment, shame, or any other disadvantage that might result from over exposure...

This is a parody of one of my favorite prayers located in The Book of Common Prayer's service of Holy Eucharist. I recently heard a person say that privacy, as we knew it before the Internet, no longer exists. Human technology has now made it possible for more and more of the things we wished not to have made public being made public. Wikileaks is one such example of such revelations.

What is the difference between God's deep knowledge of our hearts, desires, and secrets and the sorts of information about us personally and collectively which is part of the growing body of knowledge that travels on the Internet?

I am not anti-technology. I truly am enjoying the changes that allow communication between people on such social networks as Facebook. I am guessing that if you are reading this piece, you are somewhat of a technophile too.

There is a curious verse that this whole question of a lack of privacy brought to mind for me from Luke’s Gospel:

Luke 12:1 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be[a] on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

This scene from Luke 12 speaks of a huge crowd piling in on top of one another. It must have been a very challenging audience for Jesus to address, but his first words are to his closest friends and followers, the disciples. In the midst of the chaos of a crowd that was trampling on one another, Jesus tells his disciples to be on their guard for the “yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

What is the connection between this anxious and chaotic mob surrounding them and Jesus’ words of warning? I would like to suggest that the sort of hypocrisy Jesus was describing was a way of harnessing the anger, anxiety, and potentially deadly power of the mob by uniting them in opposition to an identified “enemy.” Jesus calls it yeast because it gets inside of a mob and turns it and the participating members into a movement that sanctions holy or sacred violence against a given enemy.

Jesus is telling his disciples to beware of doing this sort of thing, using the mob to create a violent movement against their enemies and he is also warning them to be on guard because they may very soon become the enemy that is identified by the secular or religious leadership of their day.

Jesus tells his disciples that all of the spoken expressions of our hearts, our desires, and secrets that are spoken in quiet, less public ways will be shouted from the rooftops. If these thoughts of our hearts, desires, and secrets were made public, how would we respond?

Jesus seems to be saying that if his disciples of any generation resort to the yeast of the Pharisees to manage the political situations of their day, these will be exposed. The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring our hidden thoughts, desires, and secrets to the surface and to make them clear to us so that we can seek forgiveness when these fearful, angry, and manipulative have resulted in violence or violation of others.

Certainly the yeast of the Pharisees is what allowed the mob to be turned against Jesus and against his disciples and it is this same yeast of hypocrisy that most all religious and secular powers continue to pour into the mix of human events to control and direct our wrath and fear.

Jesus continued his teaching amidst the mob trampling scene:

12: 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Jesus tells his disciples that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person, but rather the one who has the authority to throw someone into hell. We watched a movie called The Road the other night. The two main characters are a young son and his father who are living in a post-apocalyptic world. In the midst of the destruction of all source of authority and control, the surviving humans make decisions about how they will live and die.

The father sees the world and those who are in it as enemies and tries to teach his son to see the world that way too, but the son finally rejects his father’s teaching when he see his father mistreat an old man who had stolen from them out of the need for shoes, food, and clothing.

The father uses his gun with one bullet left in the chamber to force this old man to strip down to nothing and then leaves him to die of starvation or exposure. The son cries and pleads with his father to return and save this old man. When they return to where the old man had been left, he is no longer there. The boy leaves a pile of the old man’s shoes, clothes and a can of food for him.

The father was not dead, but had already thrown himself into hell. The son who was still living had avoided hell. Hell is not something that happens after you die physically, it is the condition of your soul while you are in the process of dying. Do you have the authority to live otherwise? Jesus says you do. The young son in the movie exercised that authority. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to us. The worst thing that can happen to us is what we do out of the fear of death.

The Internet contains the many thoughts of our hearts, our desires, and our secrets and these things do reveal something about the state of our corporate world. In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is often said that “you are only as sick as your secrets.” The collect from The Book Of Common Prayer goes like this:

Almighty God, to You all hearts are open, all desires known, and from You no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Internet is not capable of truly changing or cleansing our thoughts. It is merely a repository, a collector of our thoughts. It has no power to help us move from fear driven wrath to love embracing life. It is the God of grace that leavens us to living out of love and not fear; that moves us from the hell to heaven while we share this island home called earth.

Ryder, What's in the Box?

2010-12-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Wisdom comes to us as a gift. There are certainly many very wise men and women, but the wisdom that comes from God and not from experiences or study is a different sort altogether. Last Sunday, one of our youngest members of the congregation named Ryder was the recipient of such wisdom and he offered it to me. He came rushing into the parish house before the Advent IV service at 10 AM started. He showed me a box he had decorated and painted and then he quickly revealed what he had placed inside of the box.

I was surprised to see what was hidden within that beautifully decorated and painted box. This young lad had been given a bit of the wisdom of God. In his sense of joy at having created this work of art he seemed not to realize what a powerful icon of faith he had made. That is how the wisdom of God flows through creation and through us. Ryder did not strive for such wisdom he simply was open to it as children can be open to love, caring, and family.

One might suspect that a young man would have a wide assortment of things he could place in such a nifty box. On the outside, Ryder had placed some gold coins and painted with earth tones and blues all over the box. There were some sparkles on there too. The box was large enough to place one’s favorite small match box cars or any number of things that delight, but such things were not in Ryder’s box.

Christmas is about God’s wisdom becoming flesh, bone, and blood and dwelling among us in such a compelling way that human wisdom, experience, and intellectual activity is set aside in favor of the astounding beauty of a vulnerable, dependent, and powerless infant who carries the wisdom and power of God into the world.

Ryder received this wisdom and passed it on without a second thought. Inside of the box he placed a colorfully painted cross with sparkles bouncing light in every direction. The box painted in blue and earth tones suggests the meeting of heaven and earth. At the St. Nicholas Feast, Ryder was given a gold dollar coin with all of the other kids in attendance. The coin was given to each child so they could give it to someone in need. Money is how we take our daily labor and turn it into a way of providing for the things we need. God’s wisdom places these coins on the outside of the box, not on the inside.

Ryder placed a cross in the box, nothing else.

God places himself in our world in such a way as to change, transform, redeem, ransom, forgive, love, and to be present to us. At the heart of creation, God is present as an infant child of Mary and Joseph and on the cross. St. Paul calls this presence of God, God’s power and God’s wisdom. Such wisdom and power slip right past most of us, but God’s wisdom found expression in the exuberant, joyful, and obedient lives of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, the archangels and all of the company of heaven and of course, in Ryder’s work of art.

Merry Christmas!

Bidden or Unbidden, God is Present

2010-12-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as heartbeat, as breath, as sunrise and sunset, as sustaining and suffering love, as dear friend rejected or embraced, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as a people created from the dust who wrestle with reality and tell stories of their struggles. God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as slaves thrown out of Egypt and nearly drowned in the Sea called Red, as wanderers in the wilderness for forty years in search of the promise land, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as prophet, lawgiver, and guide, as smoke and fire, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as a new born baby in a distant land, as the one around whom angels and peasant shepherds and the beasts of the stable flock and hover in adoration, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as a child growing up surrounded by the beauties of nature and the cruelties of empire, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present as a young rabbi washed by the waters of the Jordan and blessed by a voice in the wilderness, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present in eyes that are blind or can see, in ears that can hear and do not hear, in hearts opened by love or closed by fear and wrath, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present in accusing mob and fearful friends, in hardened and broken hearts, in disgraceful abandonment, death and darkness, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, at our birth, in our daily lives, in tragedy and celebrations, and at our death, God is present.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present.

Merry Christmas

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

2010-12-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

What’s in a name?

There are a lot of people named “Bob” in this parish.

So, when you say “Bob” to whom are you referring?

In the generation into which Jesus was born there were many other children who bore that name as there continues to be among certain devout Christians around the world.

The script in this reflection offers Jesus’ name in Hebrew. Just as I can be called Bob, Robert, Rob, and other variations, so Jesus’ name had variations. Yeshua or Jeshua or Joshua are also connected to the name, Jesus which means “he will save.”

One of my favorite cartoon characters was Popeye the Sailor Man. He sang a song about who he was. Here is one of the verses from that song:

“I am what I am and that's all that I am
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eats me spinach
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man”

What does Popeye have to do with God, Jesus or John the Baptist in Sunday’s Gospel?

All four have an understanding of who they are and reveal their identities through song, actions, and verse.

Popeye sings his description of himself as someone who

“ain't aware of too many things
I knows what I knows if ya know what I mean,” but what he does know is that he is “the sailor man” and he knows what keeps him strong.

When Moses asked for the name of the voice in the wilderness which seemed to come out of burning bush he was told:

"I am what I will be. I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

When John is asked if he is the messiah, he simply says that he is

“the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

When John is in prison and sends messengers to Jesus to ask if he is the one to come, Jesus says:

"Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

If God is the One who is “I AM WHO I AM,” Jesus is offering us the face and heart of God. The Gospel responds to the questions of God’s identity, Jesus’ identity, and our identity as individuals and as a human race.

Jesus’ response to John contains the identity of God in whose image we were created and his mission is to reveal the heart and mind of God to us. Jesus comes to give us eyes to see God’s love, compassion, forgiveness, and life opening up for us as free gift.

Jesus comes to remove all impediments to our receiving this gift of God whether physical, spiritual, or culturally created. In short, Jesus comes to save us from what stops us from knowing God and ourselves and to give us what we need to live out our true identity.

Popeye is strong to the finish. Is Jesus proving to be strong in bringing good news to the poor today? Popeye eats the miracle-working spinach to make him strong in the face of opposition.

What miracle-working food kept Jesus strong in his time with us on earth in the face of rejection and a world that took offense at him? Popeye ate spinach, Jesus prayed and his bread was the doing of the will of his Father.

In Jesus, the identity of God is revealed. The great “I AM WHO I AM” becomes a vulnerable, non-violent, loving, forgiving, good news-to- the-poor-bringing, sight-and-hearing restoring, raising-from-the dead person in history whose life continues to be our miracle-working food in difficult times.

Is this Jesus someone who offends us?

Shall we ask with John,“Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?”

Is Jesus,“God will save?”

Is this one named Jesus, the true historical incarnation of the God who said to Moses:“I AM WHO I AM?”

Or shall we wait for another?

Saint Nicholas Pasta Dinner

2010-12-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

2010-12-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

TIME IS ON GOD'S LOVING SIDE & FOR OUR GOOD

2010-11-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

Having a change of heart takes time. For many of us, a life time is required to get to the point where we can finally accept being loved and forgiven and offering back to God and to others these same gifts.

Advent is a short season in the church year, but it is about time---the beginning, the middle, and the end. The end exists to give meaning and purpose to the middle. The beginning is to remind us of the One in whose image we are made and to whom we are all turning.

The end is not nightmarish violence and wrath poured out upon us by God. We have been given time to change in the midst of such humanly created violence and wrath and to accept the gift of life from God. There are no threats from God if we do not accept, only the consequences of our own wrath.

If we anticipate an end that is like what we read about in the newspapers, we are missing the meaning of our lives. If we anticipate an end that is compared to a grand and elaborate party for all of creation, we will surely want to prepare for such a wonderful end.

The preparation of Advent is about preparing our hearts and minds to receive the Christ child into our hearts; to allow the Christ to be born in us and to grow up in us in such a way as to change who we are into the likeness of Christ. Some would describe this process as "putting on Christ." I like that way of putting it.

Our collect for Advent I says it this way:

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

To repent is to turn from our wrathful ways toward God's humble presence among us, in others, and in ourselves.

Time is on God's loving side. The Rolling Stones wrote a popular song about a split up between a man and a woman. The tune is written from the point of view of the man who believes that the woman will return to him. I am sure the Stones were not writing this tune as a theological statement, but it does speak to God's waiting as a way of loving us without coercion.

“Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is
‘Cause I got the real love the kind that you need
You’ll come running back
You’ll come running back
You’ll come running back to me”

As we begin this Advent season, be open to being changed. Be open to God’s loving presence in your heart and mind. Be open to time as an opportunity to accept love and forgiveness and to offer it to others. May our running back be in joyful response to God’s love and forgiveness.

“Time exists for repentance, not as a threat of a day of vengeance.” (James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong)

A General Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies ,we your unworthy servants give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all people; We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

This collect is the starting point for my reflection on the Gospel for Christ the King this Sunday and may just be the outline for my sermon on Sunday. Thanksgiving, charitable living, humility, and a growing sense of God's mercy and love are signs that you are under the influence of God.

I am in my office at church late on a Wednesday evening as I begin to write this reflection. The lights in the parish house and around the building are glowing bright in anticipation of the community’s return this Sunday.

I have taken photographs throughout the process of reconstruction and yet today and I have felt a growing sense of being under the influence of God as I snapped photo after photo of the amazing space that has been created in the shell of the burned out parish hall and kitchen.

The General Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite prayers from my early days as a child and a new Episcopalian. Although the language of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer was sometimes challenging for my third grade vocabulary, I fell in love with the cadence and the reality that this prayer sought to express.

We bless God for our creation, preservation, and for all the blessings of this life, but above all… Here is where my heart and mind came together. What did this, “but above all” spoken of in this prayer mean?

Wasn’t it enough that God created me in such a wonderful, complex, and yet simple way?

Wasn’t it enough that he had preserved me to the very day and moment I was saying this prayer?

Wasn’t it enough that life was filled with the blessings that God speaks into existence?

Wasn’t this all just enough for me to be thankful to God?

The phrase that begins, “But above all” suggests that all of these other things only have meaning and the power to draw thanksgiving from our lips because of the “inestimable love” of God as it shows itself in the life and death of Jesus.

My third grade mind and heart, still new to the Christian faith, may not have understood the word inestimable, but I did know something about the word love.
The prayer of Thanksgiving connected God’s love with “the redemption of the world” and then offered how that love redeemed the world through a particular person. This person was Jesus and it was through his life and death that the whole world would be redeemed. The prayer used another phrase that I did not really understand, but which I loved to say because it rolled off of my tongue in a pleasing way.

Here is that phrase: “for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.” I had heard the expression the ends justify the means and wondered if this prayer was saying the same thing. I concluded that “the hope of glory” was the end for which grace was the way to come to that fulfilled hope.

So, Jesus’ death was the way grace entered into the world in such a way as to redeem our human family. Again, as a child, I was not sure how Jesus dying on a cross could change our future, but I was willing to accept to this belief on faith.

As I have gotten older and seen why we need redeeming, Jesus as the means of grace has gained clarity for me. We demand sacrifice of others in order to secure life for ourselves. God slipped into our world as just another victim of our wrathful and sacrificial existence.

In this sense, Jesus understood our language of violence and claimed the right to be the only One who could wear the crown of thorns and preside from the throne of the cross. Jesus claimed to be our sovereign King because he was willing and able to be our suffering servant. Jesus’ mission is redemption for all of God’s children. Under his reign there are no other sacrifices that are acceptable.

He is the one and only One who can take on the sin of the world and expose it. He is the one and only One who is the final full, perfect, and sufficient source of life, unity, and a new sociality that includes every single person on planet earth.

No sacrifice since Jesus has worked as well to give humanity a way of temporarily relieving us of our violence. No sacrifice since Jesus’ death has found the sort of unanimous consent of the crowd that would bring us together against a common enemy.

Our ability to point fingers at this group or that individual and claim they or he or she is the cause of all that is wrong with the world has been diminished and continues to be diminished every time it seeks to do so and fails.

As we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, our parish patronal feast day, let us give thanks to God and bless God for our creation, preservation, and all of the blessings of this life, “but above all..”

"The Devil Made Me Do It"

2010-11-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Language expresses the thoughts that we have and the reality that we perceive. Our Collect for this past Sunday includes the following line: “O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life…”

For many in our culture, the mention of the devil conjures up a religious point of view that is medieval and filled with superstitious lore. If you were asked whether you believed in the devil, what would you answer? Is our collect simply outdated and even inappropriate for use in our post-modern culture?

I would like to invite you to consider a view of the devil that might make sense even in our enlightened day and age. The word, “devil” comes from the Greek word “diabolos.” Diabolos literally means to throw across, accuse, or slander. The devil is also called Satan which means accuser or slanderer. So, the works of the devil are slanderous accusations being hurled to and fro which seem to always divide and separate people.

The image of a horned being with pitch fork in hand is easily dismissed, but a community and a world that creates an environment where slanderous accusation is acceptable and rewarded is less easily dismissed as an amusing, but simplistic fossil of ancient religion. There have been many humorous versions of the devil.

Flip Wilson, a comic from the 1960s, popularized the expression, “The devil made me do it.”( Link to YouTube of Flip’s The Devil Made Me Do It) Flip tells a story about Geraldine and her conversation with her minister about why she bought a dress. The memorable and oft repeated punch line became a part of the culture of this period.

But this collect is a serious petition to God. Our prayer assumes that Jesus has already begun his work, not of destroying the devil, but of destroying the works of the devil the slanderous accusing of neighbors What is the difference and why is the collect so worded?

The devil is a word that defines, not a person, but a process that human beings follow to solve our problem of keeping the peace and unity of whatever social unit to which we belong. We do it believing that slanderous accusations hurled at others are absolutely true. It is Jesus’ work of destroying this works of the devil that reveals to us how wrong we are in falsely accusing others in the name of keeping the peace and unity of our group.

Have you ever falsely accused someone and then discovered you were dead wrong? How did you feel? Did you ask for the forgiveness of the person about whom you passed along slanderous accusations? Have you ever been the target of false accusation? Did it make you more or less able to participate in future false accusations being passed along about others?

When Jesus destroys the works of the devil, he does so without destroying those who have participated in those works.

The collect states what the outcome of Jesus work will be: “make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.” Jesus came to save us from the diabolical human system of scapegoating others to achieve a limited bit of warless time. But more than that, Jesus came to bring us back together without slanderous accusation as children of God whose future transcends the current age in which such accusations are seen as essential to our survival.

The age to come is not pie in the sky by and by stuff, but an age in which humanity is set free from the works of the devil. Our collect concludes by offering us hope. “Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him.”

Hope is not based upon any visible evidence that things are changing. As we look around our world today, we can see more reasons to doubt God’s vision of a loving and inclusive future . Hope becomes the soap that helps us clean up our act individually and collectively so that we can be like Jesus in his refusal to cast out any of God’s children by playing the devil’s game of divide and conquer.

No, Jesus hangs onto us all and our purity is not about being better than others, but about seeing others as Jesus sees us all, God’s children. We have hope because we saw him chose to die and be the outcast in our place.

We have hope because with each passing day that we look to Jesus as our model, we find ourselves becoming more and more like him in the way we love others. We have hope because it is harder and harder for us to participate in the devil’s work of joining others in slanderous accusations against someone. We have hope because we are given the daily bread of God’s life and love and forgiveness to sustain us and because we share it with others freely, openly, and without reservation as a church.

Our collect takes away the excuses we might come up with for laying all of our problems on some hapless soul who for no good reason has become the solution to our problems and invites us to enter the purifying, cleansing water of our baptismal life in Christ where we will discover “his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Knit Together By God

2010-11-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

My Mom was a knitter in her younger years. I used to love watching her as she knit. While she was learning, she would softly remind herself to do a knit stitch and then a purl stitch in some sort of fashion. I found this creating of a piece of clothing out of string (yarn) most fascinating and mysterious.

As she got more practiced, she no longer verbalized her actions, but those early days of hearing her almost prayerfully speaking what she was supposed to do remain a part of my best memories of her.

So, when I read and pray this collect (prayer) for All Saints Day, my mind and heart turn back to those early memories of my Mom learning to knit.

Wonder how God knits us all together? What is the prayerful process God uses? The word “Almighty” might also be translated “All Embracing” (in Greek “Pan= All and Krateo (grasping or embracing). We often think of God’s almightiness as acts of sheer power moving, shaking, directing, and overriding human will.

We also sometimes use this understanding of God’s power to despair over God’s unwillingness or inability to exercise this power to punish the wicked and reward the virtuous. “If God is all powerful, why….?” Fill in the blank. For many, this is evidence of the non-existence of God or the distant and uninvolved nature of deity.

So, with great power available to create all things seen and unseen, why does the church compare the creation of a new community of humanity to knitting? As I said, knitting is a prayerful and meditative activity that does not require strength or force , but flexibility, patience, faithfulness to the creation being made, and gentle, but slow movements that bring together two separate strands of yarn into a finished product that could not exist without all strands of the original creation being brought together by skillful and prayerful hands.

Curiously, the product of God’s knitting is to incorporate these separate strands of humanity into what the collect calls “the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord.” Psalm 139 speaks of the creation of a human life using the metaphor of knitting and weaving:

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them

The mystical body of Christ our Lord began just this way. God began by knitting together the whole matrix (taken from the word, “mother’) of existence both visible and invisible. From this matrix the whole of humanity emerged, but our vision of one another was blinded to the wholeness that was inherent in God’s creation.

Instead we saw ourselves as separate and different from one another and we used those differences to divide ourselves between those who were “supposed” to be here and were therefore part of the chosen of God from those who somehow are just defective or somehow evil. We developed an “us versus them” mentality and spirituality that allowed us to act rather badly towards one another.

So, I see the mystical body of our Lord as being what God created in the beginning and I see God patiently and lovingly and faithfully knitting the tattered, torn, and divided human race (the elect) back together. This is the power of God at work in our world.

Now there is a request made by the church and for the church in this prayer. The prayer is simply for grace to follow those whom the church calls saints. Father Norm did a wonderful sermon on Sunday in which he gave us several ideas about Saints and saints. “A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”

The church is one of the instruments the Holy Spirit uses in knitting us into the mystical body of Christ the Lord and the church is made of such saints. The church is like the knitting needles and the beatitudes is the pattern of life in the Kingdom of God. Creation continues.

So, what will the final creation of God’s knitting look like? What pattern is humanity being knit into? Consider Jesus’ life of giving life not by condemning, but through giving love where love had been withheld; by healing divisions that had painfully separated humanity for generations; by serving up a meal to which all are invited and where he is the servant who prepares the meal and serves us like a servant.

But, before we are all knit together into the mystical body of Christ, we experience ourselves as divided. Jesus used our divisions to describe the tattered and torn condition in which we find ourselves seemingly impossibly rent asunder forever due to our unwillingness to repent from the ways we behave that divide us.

Remembering that Jesus is the end vision of who we really are helps us to hear his hard words about our divisions because we have come to understand by reason of his reconciling action on the cross that no matter which side of the blessings and woes we might be, God is out to reclaim us all as his elect.

Jesus invites anyone who wishes to be his disciples to see the two strands of insiders and outsiders who will be knit into the mystical body of Christ. Those who are blessed are so because they resemble Jesus in his life on earth. Here are the blessings as Jesus offered them to his disciples:

Luke 6:20-31

Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:

"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
"Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

"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.

Jesus was poor not only in spirit, but also in terms that define human wealth and success.

Jesus hungered for God’s bread and wine of justice, peace, forgiveness, and mercy.

Jesus wept for the victims of violence and for those who inflict such violence in the name of God, country, or beliefs.

Jesus was hated for no particularly good reason and certainly not to serve any purpose of God. In fact, the sheer beauty and goodness of Jesus did not stop this random selecting of him as a victim of human violence. This is what I believe it means to be hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed on account of the Son of Man.

It is not so much that our goodness is the reason we are targeted, but because we stand by those random victims who are on their way to being victimized. Human sin works by hating, excluding, reviling, and defaming individuals and groups always convincing us that we are right in taking such actions.

So, this is one strand of yarn that is being worked into the new creation of the mystical body of Christ. It includes the prophets of Israel’s past who were also treated as Christ and all other victims of sin expressed as righteousness. To be among those treated as Jesus and the prophets were treated is to be blessed in a most unexpected way.

What does the other strand of tattered and torn yarn look like? Here is how Jesus describes this other strand.

"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
"Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
"Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets

Jesus did not come to condemn and punish the rich, the satiated, the laughers, and those with impeccable reputations, but to knit them into his mystical body. Each strand is vital, essential, and irreplaceable. Each strand is part of that wonderful mystical body of Christ that is the creation for which Jesus offered his life. There are no losers or winners in this drama of salvation. The woe to you words of Jesus are designed to allow the rich, the full, the happy, and the well respected to see themselves through a different lens.

If we were to honestly see ourselves as someone loved by God and part of the whole creation that includes the poor, the hungry, the weepers, the hated, the excluded, the reviled, and the defamed we might be more willing and able to play our part in restoring the mystical body of Christ in the world.

Whether you see yourself as one of the blessed or one to whom the woes are directed, Jesus calls you to follow him.

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you."

The mystical Christ is the recapitulation of creation. How will we know if we have been knit together in Christ? Jesus describes what being knit into Christ looks like as the knitting is taking place. It begins with a change in the way we look at others whom we have seen as our enemies. We are to love those whom we formally hated and mistrusted. Love is the entrance into an ever expanding participation in the mystical body of Christ, but love must take actions that are consistent with that love.

Such actions look very much like those characteristics of the life of the blessed. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. Turn your cheek. Give your shirt to someone who takes your coat. Give to those who beg from you. Finally and simply: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

As we celebrate All Saints Day this coming Sunday, some of us will be dressing up like a saint, while others may be remembering people in their lives who have demonstrated some the characteristics of love that Jesus describes in the sermon on the plain from Luke. As Father Norm said last Sunday, we all have the ability to become a saint by simply and easily reaching out to God and he offered this quote from Nelson Mandella’s letter to his wife written in 1975:

“But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life…. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”

Which strand of yarn are you that God is knitting into the mystical body of Christ.

In Psalm 22 about which I wrote last week, there is a verse that really captures this sense of God knitting his creation back into wholeness:

Psalm 22:29

All the power-mongers are before God
—worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too
—worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together
—worshiping!

God is knitting us all back together with patience, love, and forgiveness.

Knit one, purl one…. Amen!

THE ANSWER TO MY LAMENT

2010-10-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

Do you ever think that, if there is a God, he or she is nowhere to be found? If God does exist, is God unresponsive to your complaints or to the deepest injustices of the planet? Do you ever reason that it is probably just best to take care of number 1 and stop looking for help from some super sized transcendent being?

Our culture is big on talking about trust. We find it harder and harder to trust one another from politicians, to religious leadership, to business corporate types, to even our friends and spouses. To say that we have “trust issues” is perhaps an understatement.

This is not new to human life. We have had trust issues from the very beginning of our ability to speak the words that match up with the idea of betrayal and trust.

On this past Tuesday morning, I met with a group of folks to look at what are called the Psalms of lament, particularly Psalm 22. We used the Eugene Petersen version found in The Message because it spoke in a less than eloquent way about a less than elegant feeling of being abandoned by God and turned on by what seemed like everyone on the planet in a sort of mob gone wild lynch party. Here is how it starts:

Psalm 22
A David Psalm

1-2 God, God...my God! Why did you dump me
miles from nowhere?
Doubled up with pain, I call to God
all the day long. No answer. Nothing.
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.
3-5 And you! Are you indifferent, above it all,
leaning back on the cushions of Israel's praise?
We know you were there for our parents:
they cried for your help and you gave it;
they trusted and lived a good life.
6-8 And here I am, a nothing—an earthworm,
something to step on, to squash.
Everyone pokes fun at me;
they make faces at me, they shake their heads:
"Let's see how God handles this one;
since God likes him so much, let him help him!"

Wow, the psalmist is pretty upset and his relationship with God seems a bit strained. Psalms of lament follow a particular pattern that looks something like this:

COMPLAINT: First the writer complains. This isn’t a criticism, the way a husband or wife might begin a conversation by saying: “Well, you did it again. You are so irresponsible. You never feed the dog. The dog would starve to death waiting for you to feed him.”

Such criticisms are not just about a particular misdeed, but attribute all manner of repeated ill will, poor character, and a lack of caring to the attacked partner. Obviously, this is not a great way of maintaining a loving and long lasting relationship.

So, the psalmist simply says that God is missing after having left the poor guy out in the middle of no man’s land. The complaint continues with symptoms of pain (not sure what sort of pain this is, but it is enough to double him over, so I am guessing it is pretty intense). And still no answer from God and no help.

While the psalmist might seem to be lacking trust in God, it is really quite the opposite. If you don’t trust someone, you usually stop asking for what you need from them. Yet this guy shares the reason why he is continuing to complain and to trust that he will eventually be heard. He reminds God of how faithful God had been to his ancestors.

God is trusted because God had a good track record with the family and the tribes of Israel. Doesn’t that make sense? Once trust is gained, it is only lost when the trusted person acts in such a way as to lose your trust. So, the psalmist is rehearsing the reason for his trust in God and this is revealed in the very act of complaining.

Notice that the psalmist says of his parents that they “trusted and lived a good life.”

The complaint widens now and he says less than flattering things about himself. He is an earthworm and not worthy of much consideration by anyone. He then moves to a complaint against others who are seen to be his enemy and who are preparing to destroy him.

REQUEST FOR HELP: The next element of a psalm of lament is the request for help from God. The psalmist seeks relieve from his situation. His confession of being “nothing” seems more like an offering of how he thinks others see him, than a statement of his true value. Yet, in this complaint, he is also asking why, if he is really nothing, are his enemies so intent on getting rid of him.

The psalmist is actually hitting on a pretty huge question about the way we victimize one another.

If his opponents are right in seeing him as nothing, why is he is worth such anger and hatred that seems to have come his way? He does not have an answer to this question of why he has been randomly identified as a target of their anger. He simply is asking for saving from that fate.

AFFIRMATION: The psalm of lament now enters a self-soothing reflection on the psalmist’s experience of being cared for by God. God has not always been absent. Here is what he says:

9-11 And to think you (God) were midwife at my birth,
setting me at my mother's breasts!
When I left the womb you cradled me;
since the moment of birth you've been my God.

In the mist of being troubled, this man finds hope in God’s tenderness and love he knew as an infant. How often do we remember the ways in which God’s love and attention have come our way? Does it calm us down and give us some hope? Does it renew our willingness to continue to trust God?

Well, it did in this case. The psalmist ends this continued complaint of God moving away with a request for what may be the key and solution to much of what troubles us all today. What are we really looking for in the absence of God? He says it clearly: “I need a neighbor.”

Then you moved far away
and trouble moved in next door.
I need a neighbor.

In a world that seeks to cast out rather than gather in those in need, a neighbor, as Jesus understood the meaning of that word, was and is what the psalmist needed and what we need today. When Jesus said that we are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, he expanded the definition by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. A neighbor may actually be someone who is hated by you and who reciprocates with hate towards you. Your neighbor may be your answer to prayer for God to draw near to you.

Listen to the psalmist describe his neighbors and place yourself in his agonizing and lonely position as they come after him:

12-13 Herds of bulls come at me,
the raging bulls stampede,
Horns lowered, nostrils flaring,
like a herd of buffalo on the move.

14-15 I'm a bucket kicked over and spilled,
every joint in my body has been pulled apart.
My heart is a blob
of melted wax in my gut.
I'm dry as a bone,
my tongue black and swollen.
They have laid me out for burial
in the dirt.

16-18 Now packs of wild dogs come at me;
thugs gang up on me.
They pin me down hand and foot,
and lock me in a cage—a bag
Of bones in a cage, stared at
by every passerby.
They take my wallet and the shirt off my back,
and then throw dice for my clothes.

As you read the last few lines, they may have reminded you of the scenes around the crucifixion of Jesus. The Gospel writers read this psalm through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the neighbor who intentionally walked into the trap so beautifully described by the psalmist. He walked into it, not to become a victim, but to give us all the neighbor we cry out for when we end up in the middle of such an angry circle, as the outcast, as the victim without a cause and without a defender.

The psalmist repeats his request for God to act to rescue him. He sounds more and more desperate. Throat cutting, being devoured, gored, so much meat for the lions are pretty dramatic ways of urging action from God or from anyone. The psalmist sees his situation as grave beyond words. The mob has turned on him and the mob really believes he is the problem and the solution to the problem is his death, dismemberment, and him being turned into a sacrificial meal for the mob to eat.

19-21 You, God—don't put off my rescue!
Hurry and help me!
Don't let them cut my throat;
don't let those mongrels devour me.
If you don't show up soon,
I'm done for—gored by the bulls,
meat for the lions.

The psalmist is asking for rescue to save his own skin from this horrible curse and death and in answer to his plea for God’s help, Christians have seen Jesus being the one who steps in as God in human flesh and blood and having shown God’s loving face on earth and God’s power to heal and restore what is lost, he becomes the good neighbor whom we despise and vilify.

The one who takes our place as outcast, “your it,” the problem whose death is the solution and who offers the human race what we have received from the beginning. The invitation, the example, and the power to love God with all of our being and our neighbor as ourselves has been sent and is being lived out in the lives of many.

The creation is headed for a time of deep forgiveness and thanksgiving around a Table shared by neighbors who will dine on God’s graciousness and mercy and love and not on one another. The day is coming. This is day for which we pray when we say God's will to be done and his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

For Jesus to live in us and we to live in him is the answer to the psalmist prayer. To become the good neighbor who loves friend and enemy alike is the path and the answer to this prayer. God is not present as the source or justification for human wrath and violence directed towards the psalmist. God is experienced as absent by the psalmist and Jesus confirms this truth in his dying. Jesus experiences God's absence not as abandonment of him, but rather God's never being present in human wrath and sacred violence against any scapegoat. God is with the victims and in the victims of human wrath posing as righteousness.

PROMISE OF PRAISE: The last component of a psalm of lament begins with a vision of a future day of praise to the One in whom we all live and move and have our being. It is a party around the Table of God, as I said. Read these final passages from this psalm. It says it better than I ever could.

22-24 Here's the story I'll tell my friends when they come to worship,
and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
give glory, you sons of Jacob;
adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
never looked the other way
when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his own thing;
he has been right there, listening.

25-26 Here in this great gathering for worship
I have discovered this praise-life.
And I'll do what I promised right here
in front of the God-worshipers.
Down-and-outers sit at GOD's table
and eat their fill.
Everyone on the hunt for God
is here, praising him.
"Live it up, from head to toe.
Don't ever quit!"

27-28 From the four corners of the earth
people are coming to their senses,
are running back to GOD.
Long-lost families
are falling on their faces before him.
GOD has taken charge;
from now on he has the last word.

29 All the power-mongers are before him
—worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too
—worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together
—worshiping!

30-31 Our children and their children
will get in on this
As the word is passed along
from parent to child.
Babies not yet conceived
will hear the good news—
that God does what he says.

2010-10-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."C

COLLECT FOR OCTOBER 24, 2010

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We live in a secular world. More and more of our world’s space and resources are not dedicated to the notion of the sacredness of life. We are in an ecological crisis, as well as a spiritual crisis of massive dimensions. The term “god” has become a defense for violence and global destruction. In the midst of this secularized religion of domination and destruction, the church prays for an increase in us of the divine gifts of faith, hope, and charity. We ask for what we know we need.

We are called to make sacred the whole of creation. Nothing and no one can be left out of the sacred embrace of God. We must have faith in this vision of reality. We must hope that this vision is truthful. We must love with the love of God and that love will continue to enlarge our embrace of others.

As Christians, we are called to bring the divine message and reality of mercy, justice for the poor, forgiveness for us all in our failures and even in some of the ways we have thought of as our greatest successes. Actually some of our failures may lead us to God’s grace and the truth about ourselves faster than our successes.

Lord God of the Failing Church, increase in us your gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

Jesus tells us a parable in Sunday’s Gospel from Luke about two men. One is considered religious and the other a simple failure. The religious man begins his prayer to God thanking him for the fact that he is not like the sinners he sees about him each day on his way to pray. In fact, the tax collector who prays next to this man becomes an example of comparison. Next to this tax collector, the religious man looked good, he thought.

Jesus does not tell us this story to give a sense of superiority over this religious man. In fact, he actually wants us to identify with this man’s point of view. Maybe you and I do not base our value on tithing or fasting, but we surely have a list of people who represent the sort of folks we are glad we are not like. Maybe this religious man is one such person that we give thanks we are not like.

Lord God of the Superior, increase in us your gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

Jesus invites us to look at our superior, self-justifying thoughts and beliefs, even if we have more closely identified ourselves with the poor tax collector who stands condemned by the Pharisee. The tax collector is not justified because of his bad behavior of stealing from his own people, but from his refusal to respond to those who justified themselves by making him an example of what is “wrong with the world.” This sinner does not say, “Thank God I am not like this religious prig.” He says nothing. His focus is on his own sense of failure, not compared to others, but in his own sight. This is the humility fed by the gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

Lord God of the Outsiders, increase in us your gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

So, we are left with a story that really does not have a villain. We are called to self-examination which will take all of the gifts of God, but most especially the gifts of faith, hope, and charity for which we will fervently pray this Sunday.

Lord God of those who are called to your mercy, increase in us your gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

TALKING TO YOUR IMAGE OF GOD

2010-10-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever just sat back and watched people argue over a particular issue or another? Certainly during this election season we are seeing a great deal of arguing and a lot of personal attacks directed against this candidate or another. What do you see and hear when you remain outside of the fight?

Does a pattern emerge that looks the same for both parties?

When people argue in a relationship, friendship or marriage, there are usually some restraints on the sorts of things that are said to each other. Sometimes these restraints come out of fear; other times we hold our punches out of love and respect for the other person.

The ideal in a relationship is to avoid what John Gottman calls the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (This link will take you to a good summary of Gottman's research): criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling or to have ways of quickly recovering from such episodes.

Gottman is a respected researcher in the field of what makes for happy and long lasting marriages. He and his wife, Julie were the two presenters at the recent two day workshop that Madelyn and I attended in Anaheim.

He says that a high ratio of positive comments to negative comments (John Gottman, in1994, found that in marriages which flourish (P/N ratio of 5.1) and those which end up in divorce (P/N ratio of 0.77)) during a disagreement is needed for a relationship to survive over time. I have watched many of our married couples who have been together for over 40 years and see exactly what Gottman has discovered in his research.

If these notorious horsemen have galloped through any of your own conversations, you know how devastating they can be to the overall health and sense of well being of your relationships.

So, I am wondering about how these equestrian signs of relationship disasters also may be true of our conversations with God. If these four relationship damaging tactics result in a loss of life giving human relationships, how might they also signal a similar outcome in our relationship with God?

All of us have different views of who God is and how God operates that may strongly influence your answer to such a question. Check out the link (USA TODAY) to a recent survey written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, and conducted by Gallup.

The survey asked 77 questions with nearly 400 answer choices that burrowed deeply into beliefs, practices and religious ties and turned up some surprising findings.

Check out the a summary of the research done at Baylor and to see how your view of God may influence the way you see God communicating with you and how you may be communicating with God. How does Jesus' parable on prayer which we will read on Sunday mesh with your view of God?

The four categories

Highlights of Baylor's analysis:

• The Authoritarian God (31.4% of Americans overall, 43.3% in the South) is angry at humanity's sins and engaged in every creature's life and world affairs. He is ready to throw the thunderbolt of judgment down on "the unfaithful or ungodly," Bader says.

Those who envision God this way "are religiously and politically conservative people, more often black Protestants and white evangelicals," Bader says.
"(They) want an active, Christian-values-based government with federal funding for faith-based social services and prayer in the schools."

They're also the most inclined to say God favors the USA in world affairs (32.1% vs. 18.6% overall).

•The Benevolent God (23% overall, 28.7% in the Midwest) still sets absolute standards for mankind in the Bible. More than half (54.8%) want the government to advocate Christian values.

But this group, which draws more from mainline Protestants, Catholics and Jews, sees primarily a forgiving God, more like the father who embraces his repentant prodigal son in the Bible, Froese says.

They're inclined (68.1%) to say caring for the sick and needy ranks highest on the list of what it means to be a good person.

This is the group in which the Rev. Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor and communications director for his father's 5,000-member Southern Baptist congregation in Overland Park, Kan., places himself.

"God is in control of everything. He's grieved by the sin of the world, by any created person who doesn't follow him. But I see (a) God ... who loves us, who sees us for who we really are. We serve a God of the second, third, fourth and fifth chance," Johnston says.

•The Critical God (16% overall, 21.3% in the East) has his judgmental eye on the world, but he's not going to intervene, either to punish or to comfort.

"This group is more paradoxical," Bader says. "They have very traditional beliefs, picturing God as the classic bearded old man on high. Yet they're less inclined to go to church or affiliate seriously with religious groups. They are less inclined to see God as active in the world. Their politics are definitely not liberal, but they're not quite conservative, either."

Those who picture a critical God are significantly less likely to draw absolute moral lines on hot-button issues such as abortion, gay marriage or embryonic stem cell research.

For example, 57% overall say gay marriage is always wrong compared with 80.6% for those who see an authoritarian God, and 65.8% for those who see God as benevolent. For those who believe in a critical God, it was 54.7%.

•The Distant God (24.4% overall, 30.3% in the West) is "no bearded old man in the sky raining down his opinions on us," Bader says. Followers of this God see a cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own.

This has strongest appeal for Catholics, mainline Protestants and Jews. It's also strong among "moral relativists," those least likely to say any moral choice is always wrong, and among those who don't attend church, Bader says.

Only 3.8% of this group say embryonic stem cell research is always wrong, compared with 38.5% of those who see an authoritarian God, 22.7% for those who see God as benevolent and 13.2% who see God as critical but disengaged.

If you believe in an Authoritarian God, you might say that God has the right and the duty to be critical, contemptuous, defensive, and stonewalling in his relationship with a perceived less powerful and misguided bunch of humans such as ourselves. You might believe that when God uses the Four Horsemen, it is “for our own good.” The question is not whether God is right or wrong. God is always right and we are always wrong if we do not do what God tells us to do. God shows us when we are wrong by bringing disasters on people and nations that do not follow his ways.

If you believe in a God who is Benevolent, you might say that God is still always right, but that he is much more understanding and forgiving than the Authoritarian God. The Benevolent God would try to communicate to us in more loving ways while still letting us know how we are wrong and he is right. God being good all of the time to all people could only speak in ways that would encourage greater and greater communication in the name of helping us get our act together.

If you believe in a God who is Critical, you might say that God only speaks harshly against those whose behavior inflicts hardship and economic suffering on the poor in the world. God being the friend of the poor would only send the Four Horsemen off to deliver threatening messages of judgment against the rich while remaining loving and tender in his communication with the poor.

If you believe in a Distant God, you might say that God is not really communicating to us, but having made us as we are has left how we will be towards one another to our own judgment. God being distant and not really involved in the outcome of his creation doesn’t communicate at all, not as a form of stonewalling, but in keeping with his original design of creating, but not hovering over what he has created.

If you are an Atheist, you would probably not have any response to this question, but might suggest that the question has absolutely no meaning to you because there is no God with whom to have a relationship and therefore no communication possibilities exist.

Which view of God comes closest to your own? With that in mind, read this coming Sunday’s Gospel and see if you can identify elements of these views in how Jesus sees God?

Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Religious Literacy & Healing Faith

2010-10-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

Recently there was a story in the news that was based upon whether Americans were religiously literate. I took this 15 question quiz and offer you the opportunity to do the same by clicking on this link.

Once you have taken this survey and received your score, read the rest of this week's Gospel Reflection. I wonder if being religiously literate makes us better human beings, better people of faith, more Christ-like? In our Gospel Reflection I would like to have us take a look at the story of the 10 lepers who are healed by Jesus as a way of looking at what it means to be a literate person of faith. Join me.

So, how did you do on the quiz? Do you feel the quiz truly defined your religious literacy?

I believe that we should know as much about the details of the faith traditions of our world as we can, but I am much more concerned that we get the heart of those traditions.

Let’s see how our Gospel reading for this Sunday perhaps reveals the heart of God, that deeper knowledge that unites us rather than divides us.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

It should be noted that the Samaritans and the Jews of that time viewed one another with great hostility and contempt. Among lepers, however, there seemed to be neither Jew nor Samaritan. They are simply the “unclean.” There unity was based upon a common affliction, a common rejection and marginalization by each of their respective communities.

There were ten of these lepers. Ten is a number of wholeness, completion. Do you recall the stories Jesus told about the good shepherd who left behind 99 sheep to go in search of the one sheep who had been separated from the group? Do you remember the story that followed that one about the old woman who had 10 coins, but had discovered one was missing and how she searched and searched until she found that one coin? These stories reveal God’s desire, God’s dream of his creation as being incomplete until all are found, all restored, all made alive.

Just so, this story of Jesus being approached by 10 lepers we see a certain sort of unity that is based upon those who are lost and marginalized seeking to form a community separate from the ones into which they were born, raised, and indoctrinated. Having been rejected and marginalized by their two communities, they formed their own community of the excluded.

This story is often seen as a miracle story because Jesus heals all ten of these lepers, but I would like for us to look at the outcome of this healing. After their healing did they continue together as they had before, a community of lepers now restored and healed? Or, did they return to the very communities that had rejected them?

Did the healed Jewish lepers return to their community less hostile to the Samaritans than they were before the spent time with him? Did they return to their community as ambassadors of a larger understanding of God’s dream of unity among all people or did they simply return to the old ways of exclusion, contempt, and rejection of those who were different than themselves?

Might they have scored high on a religious literacy test, but missed the heart of God’s dream and will for his creation?

Jesus sends them off to their respective religious leaders, the priests, to be examined for the purpose of being declared clean and to be reintegrated into their families and their communities. This sending back home took place between the land of the Samaritans and the land of the Jews. Nine went one way and the one went the other way.

What happens next reveals something we might miss if we only focus on the healing of ten lepers who then return to their normal lives in their families and communities of faith. It is as they are on their way home that these lepers are healed. Their healing is a result of following Jesus’ direct order to go and show themselves to their respective priests. Notice that the healing was not certified before the Samaritan returned to give thanks to God at Jesus’ feet.

Something inside of this man convinced him beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was clean, whole, restored. He did not wait for confirmation by a priest or the payoff of being “acceptable” in the eyes of his former Samaritan community. He experienced a knowing that he was acceptable and clean in the eyes of God even before he was healed that Jesus called, “your faith.”

Gratitude and praise directed towards God is the response to such an experience of knowing God’s love and acceptance that Jesus calls faith. Jesus sends this man off saying: "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Will this Samaritan return to his former community and tell with praise and gratitude how God loved him even when his own community had not? Will he return angry at the system that rejected and marginalized him? Or, will he return to support the system that rejected and marginalized him? When others are similarly cast out due to the curse of leprosy or other community assigned reasons for rejection, will this Samaritan testify to the faith that healed him or will he go back to the old ways of his community?

Consider the nine who returned home and the one. What would it take for the one and the nine to become ten again without leprosy or any other human designed reason for exclusion rather than compassion? If you have ever experienced rejection, but discovered the deep faith of the Samaritan, how is that faith changing the way you live your life as you “get up and go your way?”

Finally, a note on the impact Jesus had on a community of ten outcasts. He destroyed their unity that was based upon their common identity of being victims of their communities or of God by healing them. What this healing revealed was a new way of being that does not require community based upon victimization, but based upon faith that sees God as loving and compassionate, not as the divine condoner or participant in exclusion, sin, and death that marks us as certain as Cain bore this mark of unity.

The mark of the cross is new sign of unity, invisibly worn on every baptized Christian that reminds us of our Samaritan roots of faith in a God who heals, restores, and creates a community of forgiveness and compassion. I don’t have to know the meaning of the word, “transubstantiation” to be a person of faith, but I do need to know the heart of God by faith.

Light Along the Path

2010-09-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

This is the Gospel passage for October 3rd that will be read in most, if not all, Episcopal Churches.

So, when asked by the "sent ones" (AKA apostles) to increase their faith, Jesus talks about faith the size of a mustard seed that allows such... a person of faith to uproot and send mulberry trees flying into the sea. But then, just as you may start to think of faith as a form of power over the physical universe, Jesus talks about slaves doing slave work and not expecting their master to cook them dinner at the end of their long day of hard labor.

Rather, the master tells the slaves to get his dinner ready and then serve him with aprons on.

The kicker is that Jesus says to his apostles that once they finish the work they have been ordered to do, they should say to themselves: "We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done."

So now I invite your reflection and response to this text. I am guessing that it will bring up some interesting, disturbing, confusing, and maybe even some brilliant flashes of insight. Stay with it. Let it speak to you.

A Few Days Have Passed since posting these initial comments.

On further consideration….

Perhaps Jesus is addressing our understanding of our relationship with God as being one of rule giver and rule followers. Following rules is very different that trusting someone, even the law giver, to direct your steps. When I was a public school administrator in California, my role and the rules for running a public high school were set out in several volumes of Education Codes. It was a permissive code in that I could only do what it allowed me to do. Rather than having a set of "Don'ts", I had a set of "Dos."

At the end of each day, it was clear to me that I had not done all of the "Dos" of my job, but had ended up focusing my limited time, talent, and space to fulfilling those "Dos" that resulted in building a community of teachers, staff, teens, and their parents that was respectful, focused on caring about the kids and their futures, and providing the best educational opportunities we could create together.

On any given day, I could easily have been fired for not doing a particular "Do" of my job. I knew that I was not doing all that the laws and codes required of me and of my school and so I did not tend to bet too full of myself.

Perhaps Jesus is addressing those who are bound to a set of laws, the fulfillment of which gave them a sense of being of greater value, goodness, or holiness than anyone else. It is this hubris, this pride that Jesus' story of slaves who expect to be served by their master at the end of their day of work seems to expose.

Those of us who are bound to the law as a way of being good rather than settling for God's love and grace have defined our relationship with God and others in a way that can only lead to disaster.

I appreciated having the California Education Code to help me do my job in accordance with the public will, but I never went home feeling that my work as a principal was limited to simply following the rules. I felt like those slaves who at the end of the day understood that by any measurement of the Education Code, I was a miserable failure and pretty much worthless.

So, here is the good news. When I saw kids being graduated from our little continuation high school who had been written off as failures and sometimes as impossible cases, I knew what grace was all about, not just for them, but for those of us who are slaves to rules.

Grace gives the rules we follow a context that moves us from slaves to a code book to slaves to a grace where we are utterly dependent upon the love of God. Jesus liberated the law as a source of self-congratulatory bragging and returned it to what the psalmist called a light along the path way. Notice that it is not the path way, only a light to help us see the path way.

Where does the path lead? I have found that the path of grace is where we meet other pilgrims and where love, grace, beauty, and remembering who we are and whose we are, is a place called home.

IT’S THE REAL THING

2010-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Dead and yet alive,
Bread and wine offered and shared.
Broken and gathered,
Outside our gate,
Seen and known
Around the rail,
the Table,
the Throne of God,
the Cross,
Creation.
RWC+ (September 2010)

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.

The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.

Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

So often we fail to see things and people around us. By seeing, I guess I really mean knowing something deep down inside of our core. One way of coming to know someone, to really see them, is to love them against all odds.

This is not romantic love that comes and goes, but an abiding reverence for and faithfulness to someone who might be invisible to others. The Gospel for this Sunday presents two characters. The rich man and the poor man (Lazarus by name) live in the same world, yet the rich man never really comes to know, see, or love Lazarus.

Lazarus is invisible to the rich man. Lazarus was no more real to the rich man than Jesus was to those who either ignored him or accused him and sentenced him to death.

Sunday after Sunday and every time we come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper we reenact this story of Lazarus and the rich man. When we hear the stories of scripture; pray for those in need; confess our sins; and identify Jesus as the one who allows himself to be rejected, unseen, and on the edge of death and obscurity, we are seeing the poor and rejected of our world, Lazarus by name.

In the story that Jesus tells about Lazarus, the rich man begs Father Abraham to send the now dead Lazarus back to his family to warn them that their future after death is determined by whether they can respond differently to the poor in their world.

Abraham says that if the rich man’s family did not believe in the law of Moses that called upon them to care for the poor then they would also not believe even if that poor man rose from the dead.

So, are the rich man’s family always destined to live without hope of seeing and knowing Lazarus in their midst? Jesus death and resurrection makes it harder and harder for the rich of the world to ignore the poor. He makes them visible to us and invites us to know them and to care about them.

As we worship God in Christ, we come around the Table of grace where Jesus is made visible and known to us in bread and wine, his body and blood. We see Lazarus, raised from the dead, not condemning the rich, but coming to us to offer us an opportunity to see and to know all of God’s children who sit outside the gates of our world.

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

DO WE HAVE TO PRAY FOR EVERYONE?

2010-09-16T22:17:00.001-07:00

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Paul encourages those who follow the way of God as shown to us by Jesus to pray without prejudice and despite our personal negative feelings and opinions about others. Paul believes that praying for others will help us lead lives that are quiet, at peace with God and others, and filled to the brim with all of God that can fill a human life. Paul also uses the word, "dignity" to describe this praying-for-others kind of Jesus following life.

Dignity is often seen as a characteristic that is earned by reason of one's accomplishments, status among others, power, and/or wealth, but Paul sees dignity being inherent in every human being because we are all made in the image of the only true God and creator of all that is. So, whether we think someone has dignity or not, Paul says to pray for that person "as if" they did have dignity because to do so helps us to experience our own dignity seen in the ways we act like God is love, mercy, and concern for others irrespective of who they are in our opinion or the opinions of others.

Paul continued:

For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all -- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Paul is saying that since there is but one God who calls all of us his children and only one God in whose image we are all made, we only need one mediator between God and ourselves. Why? Because Jesus does not take sides against any of his brothers and sisters who are all made in the image of God, the creator. Whenever Jesus looked at another person he saw God, not an enemy or a friend, but God and he loved that person with all of his heart, mind, and strength. It is this quality, particularly and uniquely in Jesus that identifies him as the only mediator and advocate for the whole human race.

It is Jesus' ability to see God in all of us that makes him our hero, our rescuer, our redeemer, our savior, our Lord. Other heros, political, spiritual, and religious have come along, but they tend to only see themselves as favoring one group over another. These heroes see only themselves and their own and not the rest of creation. It is this quality of heroes being over against those we might see as enemies or persecutors or evil that makes them incapable of saving all of God's children whom God has made. So when Paul claims exclusive status for Jesus as the only mediator between God and all of humanity, he is saying something rather simple, but ever so deep. Jesus is here to rescue us all and pours his life out for all people, not just some.

There are many who will reject such an exclusive claim for Jesus because it seems to exclude those who do not believe in him, but Paul is saying just the opposite, he is saying that no one else can rescue the lot of us without being willing to give himself up to our wrathful human ways of taking sides. Jesus becomes the ransom for all humanity in a world that is more than willing to play favorites and scapegoat the rest as being unworthy of continued existence.

Sunday's Gospel reading is about the unjust steward who gets busted by his master for misappropriating his master’s wealth and by doing so, he made the master look bad. Masters with great wealth were not well liked by those who owed them money, but dishonest stewards were held in even greater contempt. So, the borrowers go to the master and demonize the steward (yep, the word used to describe how these borrowers told on the steward comes from the Greek word, diabolos, devil, divider, demon) and the master's initial response is to rip the steward from his position in a violent and rather harsh way.

But the master gives the steward time to settle up the accounts. It is during this time that the steward offers deals to the borrowers that make not only the master look good (thus restoring his honor), but also gives this crafty and unjust steward “many friends” and “eternal homes” among those who will probably not soon forget the steward’s pardoning or forgiving whatever debt they said they owed the master.

Imagine being able to tell your creditors how much you owed them because the creditors really didn’t know or care what you owed? Would you tell the steward the truth when he asked you to write out your bill? Would you pay what you really owed? But that is not the main point of this story.

The honor, not the money, seems to matter most to the master. Creating good relationships with those in debt to the master seems to matter most to the steward. So the steward reduces debt in the name of the master and the master commends him this unjust steward (who is still misappropriating his master’s funds) for getting something right.

Jesus may be saying, “I don’t care why you forgive others, whether out of fear, or self-preservation, or greed, or to uphold your honor, just do it. Forgive now, not later. Forgive not just the ones who are easy to forgive, forgive them all. Forgive debts that are deep or shallow. Ultimately, the debt is owed to the master not the stewards.

Finally, the kingdom is about forgiving and those who can forgive in the name and power of God had best be at this work of forgiveness. Will we forgive to avoid punishment, to uphold God’s honor, or because we hope to forgiven ourselves? Motives seem not to matter at all.

Paul says to prayer for everyone—see them as owing you nothing, as debt-free. Uphold the honor and dignity of God captured in each living soul, rejoice and celebrate that God has come to free us all from the debts that are killing us. He comes to free us from demanding that others pay up more than they owe or can possibly pay us. The ransom God pays in Christ has us all covered. Will we share this good news with others by letting them know that our debts are forgiven?

9-11, A Minister in Florida, and a Lost and Found Sheep

2010-09-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

In the midst of the many challenges and changes in our world, it is sometimes appropriate to offer a word about a current news event that might help us look at it from a distinctly Anglican perspective. The news is full of fairly heated rhetoric these days mostly blaming and shaming and encouraging one part of the public to side against another part of the body politic as simply wrong.

It used to be said: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Perhaps it is true that words are not capable of directly and personally injuring me, but words can incite those who hear certain accusatory and defamatory words to pick up stones and sticks and go after the person or persons against whom the words are directed.

Anglicanism has many gifts for those who are willing to receive and use them. One of these gifts is the way we try to think about questions that trouble us or call us to action. This gift comes in three parts: Scripture, Tradition, and Reason and is often called the source of authority within the church.This three-fold gift causes us to pause before responding to incendiary words and calls to action against others. In short, this gift is a call to prayer and thinking through issues and events that trouble us and that seem to be demanding that we take a stand against this or that person or cause.

The tragedy of 911 is an event whose meaning seems to be open to many interpretations. There is a struggle within America as to what meaning it should have for us. There are those who want this event to be a rallying cry against the perpetrators and this cry for revenge seems to have expanded to include all of those who practice the same religion as those who actually flew the plans into the Twin Towers.

Revenge is a powerful emotion and one of our nationally known political leaders summed up how we have separated God out from the question of how we should respond to those who attacked us or who are in anyway associated with those who attacked us. He said: “God have mercy on the souls of those men who did this (911 attack), because we won’t.”

What we say becomes a sort of covenant with a course of action. A Florida minister says that God has directed him to burn copies of the Koran on 9-11 this year and his small congregation of 50 members becomes front page news; a photograph of him is burned somewhere in the Middle East and he is called the devil; the leading military officers in the United States plead for him not to burn the Koran and offer reasons for their pleading including the safety of American troops; some political and religious leaders have condemned his actions while others have remained silent.

The minister says that he hopes that the burning of the Koran will not result In anyone suffering or dying, but that if it does lead to suffering and death, he would not accept responsibility for those deaths. He disconnects his words from any potential outcome of suffering and death, but says that he and his people must do the burning to take a stand and do what God has directed them to do.

Notice how God is the ultimate authority for the violence that may or may not follow the burning of the Koran. The minister and his congregation are relieved of any such responsibility because God has directed their actions and only those who actually do the killing of Americans or anyone else are responsible for any deaths that might follow their burning of the Koran.

You may have a gut reaction to what this minister is doing and how he is justifying his actions, but I would like us to go beneath the surface of these gut feelings and explore why we are reacting the way we are in this situation. Our three -fold gift of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason provides us with a way to do just that. It also challenges us to take a hard look at how we view God and how God communicates his will to us as individuals and as the human community and at how we view ourselves and how human beings respond to threats and tragic events like 9-11.

Scripture: So, what can you find in Scripture that would make the call for the burning of books like the Koran acceptable? What are the examples taken from Scripture of how God’s people have responded to threats from their enemies? As Christians, what does Jesus and the apostolic witness say about how we are to deal with our enemies and those who persecute us?

How do you weigh what may be contradictory messages on these questions that are found in Scripture?

Tradition: How do you understand the continuing revelation of God in human history as recorded in the non-monolithic teachings of the church in each succeeding generation? When you look at some of the rules of warfare found in the Geneva Convention, do you see any of these rules as somehow related to the influence of the church on nation states? Of the many choices for responding to attacks by others offered in the church’s history, how do you evaluate which of these paths is the one you feel God is calling you to embrace? How might this path differ from your understanding of God and human beings offered in Scripture?

Our baptismal vows and corporate prayer life are part of this gift of tradition that is rooted in Scripture. In our vows and promises we say that we will seek and serve Christ in all people, loving our neighbor as ourselves. We also say that we will respect the dignity of every human being. There are no “unless” or “until” or “if” clauses in these promises we made at our baptism, but we are left with the choice of how we will live into these promises and vows we make. If you are not a baptized Christian and have not made such promises, you may have other ways of evaluating the proper course of action.

Reason: This gift of reason includes our acquired knowledge about life including what we have learned through science, the arts, theology, literature, and all other sources of knowledge that teach us about the visible universe and how it works. It also includes your own personal history and moral/ethical decision-making over your life time.

In taking time to prayerfully and thoughtfully consider the questions raised by this one current event and the historical event that created this event, we are making a choice to not respond from our gut, but from our hearts informed by our willingness to be guided by the Holy Spirit in our use of the three-fold gift of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. I know the temptation to do a knee-jerk response is strong and I have more than once succumbed to this temptation, but I pray that we will all use this opportunity to consider our response.

Now, let’s see how this bit of Scripture for this coming might help us respond to both the 9-11 attack and the current event making the news.

Jesus is surrounded by people who were considered the enemies of culturally defined goodness and sanctity—tax collectors and sinners summed up their condition. I am guessing that among this crowd were potential if not actual terrorists who were fighting the Roman Empire’s occupation of Israel. He was also surrounded by those who judged him for associating with such people and for sharing common meals with them, an act that would defile him according to their strongly held beliefs.

Jesus tells the story of the Good Shepherd to both groups. The good shepherd is the one who leaves 99 of his sheep in the wilderness and goes out to rescue the one who got lost. When the good shepherd finds this one lost sheep, he hoists it up on his shoulders and brings it back to the community and the other 99 sheep. A party is thrown to celebrate the return of the lost sheep.

Consider the possibility that Jesus was telling the story about himself, not as the good shepherd, but as the lost and dying lamb. Scripture often calls God the shepherd of his people. In the psalms we hear that we are the “sheep of his pasture.” So perhaps Jesus is telling the story of his own death, his loss of place in the community, his loss of the protection of the Good Shepherd who is God, his loss of identity as a child of his people and of God, and finally his loss of life.

It is interesting that the 99 sheep are left in the wilderness, the place where Israel was led by Moses to learn about God and about themselves. In leaving the 99 in such a dangerous place, the shepherd runs the risk of all of the sheep being stolen, injured, eaten, or lost. So, why would he do that?

Suppose that the Good Shepherd is God the shepherd. God the shepherd is different from any other human shepherd. God as shepherd understands that the 99 sheep stay together out of fear of being lost themselves. They hang together to protect themselves from their enemies and from the harshness of the wilderness and in their sheep’s world they see the loss of one of their own as being acceptable collateral damage for keeping them all together and safe.

They expect God the shepherd to stay with them rather than go after the one who is lost, but God disappointingly does not follow their script. This God goes in search of the lost one because in God’s economy, no one is expendable or a sacrificial offering for the rest of the sheep, the herd, the crowd, the mob.

God never really was in on this system of loss and so he goes in search of this lamb, this child of his and brings him back on his shoulders like one carrying the horizontal bar of a cross. When he returns with this lost Lamb of God, the party begins because it could not ever begin without this lost one.

We call this return of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the resurrection.

All of history since that moment in time is about how the human race will imitate God in welcoming the lost ones, some of whom we have responsibility for driving out from our presence. The party celebrating the “first born of the dead” has begun. Will we be among those who join the celebration or will we remain steadfast, as the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son does in staying away from the party and being angry about the return of the lost brother that the Father then celebrates?

History since the resurrection is about the 99 sheep left behind in the wilderness joining God in the search for the lost, ignored, abandoned, forgotten, reviled and rejected and rejoicing when the lost are found and restored to community. We become a new sort of sheep, no longer sticking together out of fear, but called together around God the Good Shepherd of the human flock.

“Jesus is the first born of all creation, the head of the church, and the author of our salvation” because God the Shepherd sought him out in death and raised him from the grave when we judged him worthy of death and non-existence. It is Jesus, this first victim restored, who contains within himself all victims of every age—past, present, and future that the Father, the Great Shepherd of the human flock, has sought out and found and now celebrates in bread broken and wine offered.

Perhaps this simple story Jesus told about a lost lamb and the Good Shepherd can be part of the way we come to understand a minister who plans to burn the Koran and all of the various people and institutions that are responding to his intended course of action and making it large in our national conversation.

In the original response to our national loss on September 11, 2001, some people went to ground zero to pray for the lost, to work to save those who were lost, to comfort those whose loved ones were missing and possibly dead, to give aid and support to the workers digging through debris, and there were those who prayed for those who had committed the acts that led to death and destruction in the name of God.

Perhaps you have your own way of understanding the parable of the Good Shepherd that is helpful to you in deciding how you will evaluate this one single moment in history called 911 that carries such a heavy weight of pain, fear, anguish, wrath, and fury. Perhaps you will find in the three-fold gift of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, the wisdom and courage that help you keep the promises and vows you made when you were baptized.

OF PIZZA AND FAMILIES

2010-09-02T07:03:00.001-07:00

Gospel Reflection on Family Values: WHAT WAS BEFORE FAMILY?

Our collect for this Sunday (This link will take you to a rather longer reflection on the collect) reminds us that trusting God is not something we do based upon our strength or intelligence, but comes as pure gift.
How does that work?

Well, consider that a young child will jump with reckless abandoned towards an adult trusting that the adult will catch them rather than letting them fall to the ground. Is it the child trusting that he or she will be able to stop their fall or is it rather that the child has been given the knowledge that the adult into whose arms they are headed is strong enough and willing to catch them?

Where does that knowledge that allows the child to trust parents and other adults to take care of them? Prior experience of the trustworthiness of the parent or adults in general may be a big part of the answer. It can work the opposite way as well.
The child can fearfully retreat from adults, even parents if their experiences of these particular adults is not fairly consistently loving, caring, and trustworthy.

Our collect draws from a long history of experiencing God as trustworthy. It is this gift of trustworthy, loving, and caring actions that allow us to trust God as we enter into a deeper and more committed relationship with him. This is what Jesus is talking about in our Gospel for this coming Sunday.

Among most cultures, the family is seen as the foundation for the best in our national life together. So much of the current debates about what constitutes a family today is driven by this central and long held belief that healthy families promote healthy civic culture.

Recently I have been asked to provide Cub Scout mentoring for boys in the parish who are going for their religious merit badges. The program that is used by the scouts is called P.R.A.Y. The two units I have been asked to assist with are called “God and Me” and “God and Family.” As I looked over the mentor’s manual, I was struck by how those responsible for creating the units dealt with the place of family in the life of the young man.

They compared the relationships that form our lives to a pizza. The whole process of creating a pizza was compared to the process of socialization that we have all gone through as from birth onwards. The crust, the sauce, the toppings, the cheese, baking, eating, and sharing were connected to a Christian understanding of the family.

The crust is foundational to who we become and represents God as the sure foundation on which our lives are built. The sauce is our family heritage and spiritual heritage. The toppings are our talents and gifts that strengthen our families. The cheese is about being covered with God’s unconditional love and our response to that love. Baking corresponds to the patient process of being formed as individuals within the family with all of the ingredients combined with the finishing time in the oven and how important being in God’s family is when faced with the tough times of life. Finally, eating the pizza represents our sharing God’s love that we have learned to trust within our families.

So, it is the crust to which Jesus refers today when he says that being a disciple means that our trust must not be placed on our parents or other family members, but upon God as the sure and trustworthy foundation of our lives.

Before families were, God is and it is upon the God “who settest the solitary in families” that must be the most important relationship we have as disciples of Christ. Why?

Our parents and other family members have a responsibility to raise us to be in a loving relationship with God and with all of God’s children, not just the ones we like or who are like us or to whom we are related. This is this duty and obligation of Christian parenting.

In other words, parents need to trust in God as their Father so as to show their children that as parents, they too, are limited and dependent upon God as the foundation or crust of their lives. If the sauce, toppings, cheese are substituted for the crust of God’s love what comes out of the heat of baking will be predictably less than desirable.

It is God “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” God is the trustworthy crust or bread of our existence. If we think our family heritage or our spiritual heritage or our talents, gifts, or the excellence of our family life can substitute for God, we will build and bake in vain. Only God can be God and while these other things are good, they are not God.

In saying that one must hate one’s father and mother in order to be a disciple of Jesus, he is saying that to put anything in the place of God (also known as idolatry) only leads to a closed-minded spirituality that sees family, tribe, or nation more important and trustworthy than God. Jesus is clear, God as unconditional love and forgiveness must always be the crust upon which the nurturing gifts of family life must be built.

To do otherwise is to “hate God” and all that God is. To love God over family, tribe, and nation is to love them ever so much more than if we tried to put the burden of being God on them. Such attempts lead to disappointment, heartbreak, and broken relationships.

Here is one of my favorite prayers from THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER for families. Read it over slowly and prayerfully and see if you don’t see what Jesus was saying in the Gospel.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee, every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

READINGS FOR THIS SUNDAY

Philemon 1-21

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.

For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love-- and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother-- especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

MY FIRST BISHOP AND OUR NEW BISHOPS

2010-08-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

When I became an Episcopalian, I did not know much about the larger church. I just knew that I liked how I felt sitting in the church as an 8 year old newly transplanted Kansas boy. I sure didn't know that there were several different orders of ministers. We had some terrific lay readers who led us in Morning and Evening Prayer on an almost weekly basis.

So, as we prepare to welcome The Rt. Reverend Diane Jardin Bruce, the first woman bishop elected in the Diocese of Los Angeles this coming Sunday, I would like to share some thoughts on the first bishop I came to know, The Rt. Reverend Francis Eric Bloy, and my thoughts about the elections of Diane and Mary Glasspool.

Bishop Bloy was elected the Diocesan bishop in Los Angeles in 1948, two years after I was born. He was the bishop when we arrived in Los Angeles and showed up one Sunday morning at St. Cross in Hermosa Beach.

He was the bishop who confirmed me and he was the bishop when I began the ordination process. During my first interview with Bishop Bloy, he told me of the difficulties he encountered when he opposed legislation to allow discrimination against African-Americans who wish to buy a home in a particular area.

Torrance was such an area. Because of his opposition to this sort of discrimination, Bishop Bloy received hate mail and threats and saw long time members of the diocese leave because he was mixing what they said was religion and politics.

He was a man of great moral authority to me and a man who seemed to bear a good deal of both emotional and spiritual pain. That first visit with Bishop Bloy, he shook my hand and wished me well, saying he would recommend I go to the Standing Committee for final consent to my being made a postulant for Holy Orders.

It was the early 1970s and Bishop Bloy was nearing the end of his service as our bishop. He seemed tired, but I left with the sense that I had been in the presence of a truly holy man.

Bishop Robert Rusack was my second bishop and he ordained me in 1982. I have since known several of our bishops and found them all to be people of integrity and great strength in faith. Bishop Carver, Borsch, and Jon Bruno have been my diocesan bishops and Chet Talton has been the only bishop suffragan I have really known and loved.

Now we have Diane Jarden Bruce and Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragans in this diocese. They bring gifts and a holiness of life that will touch us all. I have known Diane as a friend and colleague and I am delighted that she will be with us on Sunday.

Bishop Bloy was a complex and thoughtful man. I think he was a mostly introverted man who enjoyed an active life searching the night skies for stars and other heavenly bodies. Yes, he was an amateur astronomer and this avocation seemed to be a very important part of his spiritual life.

I remember one sermon that Bishop Bloy preached during my first year as a student at the seminary in Claremont that was bore his name, Bloy House. It was towards the end of his time as our bishop and it seemed to me that he was in a great deal of pain.

I was not sure if his pain was physical, spiritual, or emotional, but there was pain in the man. He preached on the text of the collect for the first Monday in Easter week:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Bishop Bloy was a very private man, but as he preached this sermon I could tell that he had made the way of the cross the way of life for himself and that as he was ending his time of leadership, he was at a particular difficult time. His sermon was a great witness to a man whose courage and faith were tested by the historical and cultural circumstances of his life. The joy that this collect anticipated was also present in Francis Bloy’s life of the cross. He had become a witness to the cross and a follower of Jesus and his life inspired me to make this prayer and way of life, my prayer and my way of life.

Bishop Bruno, Bishop Bruce, and Bishop Glasspool have offered their lives in witness to the joy that walking in the way of the cross sustains, empowers, and forms them and us. Like Bishop Bloy and the rest of us, pain will be part of their lives. It may be personal or more openly visible to us. It means that they are called to be witnesses to the inclusive love and mercy and forgiveness and to be willing to suffer random rejection, threat, and disapproval by a world desperate to save itself by lashing out against this person and that person and blaming.

But bishops are chosen to lead us joyfully in a world that uses random threats, blame, shame, and exclusions, a world of pain and suffering. It is the joy that I saw even through the pain of Bishop Bloy that has strengthened me and made joy possible amidst the suffering and pain that has been part of my life of following Jesus.

This is the example of a faithful bishop that is present in Jon, Diane, and Mary. They lead us in living lives of holy living and holy dying—joy, joy, joy. Please welcome our newly elected bishop suffragan with the love and the hospitality that is Christ Church. For some of you, she may be the first bishop you have ever met.

BELIEFS THAT BEND AND TWIST US

2010-08-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

"Get off my back!" This command expresses the frustration of having the experience of someone constantly and annoyingly pushing our buttons or having something that is physically, emotionally, or spiritually heavy pressing down on us, weighing us down and making life difficult and joyless. In our day-to-day lives we sometimes just get to the point where we want to yell out at someone or something about how hard life has become.

Sometimes we direct our invectives at people we love or who are closest to us and sometimes we take out of our anger, resentments, and fears on those individuals or groups that have nothing at all to do with our fatigue and overload.

In this coming Sunday's Gospel reading from Luke, we find Jesus teaching in an unknown synagogue when suddenly his attention is drawn to a woman who for 18 years had been bent over with her eyes cast to the ground as if she were carrying a very heavy load. Normally women were allowed in the synagogue if they sat on benches provided on the far sides of the room. However, they were not participants in the reading and teaching of scripture.

I am not sure how she understood her condition. Most of us tend to either blame ourselves or others when bad things happen to us and when the burdens of life become overwhelming. Sometimes we speculate why someone else is suffering.

If it is someone we like, we tend to be more sympathetic and less blaming. If the person is someone we consider an enemy, we might entertain the possibility that God is punishing the person for their sins. In Jesus' day, it was commonly believed that such physical ailments were the result of the person's sins.

We may say that this is a rather primitive view of things and that modern science has liberated us from such ignorance, but before science was set free to explore the causes of our diseases, Jesus was already at work showing that disease was not punishment for sins. Rather he healed in the name of God to demonstrate that God was not about using disease to punish people.

Jesus saw our beliefs about sickness to be the real problem. And these commonly held beliefs said something about God that is untrue. It was the community pointing fingers at the infirm and claiming that their diseases were punishments for sin that Jesus took reversed. He labels such group think accusatory beliefs, Satan, which means the Accuser.

By rejecting this belief, science was set free to explore the biological and physiological nature of sickness and physical ailments. It is by faith that medical science developed and the reaction of the woman to her healing was transcendent joy and praise for the God who is out to untie us from living burdened and twisted lies that prevent us from seeking the truth.

As long as this woman's twisted back was seen as punishment for personal sin, she was not only condemned by her peers, but she was denied the possibility of discovering a treatment and relief through the healing arts. She is, in effect, "bound by Satan," by a belief that was so powerful that the whole community, even those who might have loved her, saw her condition as the just punishment for her sins.

This was the truly heavy load that this woman bore and that we impose on ourselves and others when our beliefs are twisted and keep us looking at the ground instead of towards the skies or into the eyes of a compassionate person who cares for us.

The issue of violating the Sabbath is an example of how a belief can be used to prevent us from doing the most loving and caring things for others. The issue is not that there are other days on which healing can take place or that we should never rest. The issue is that resting in God is only found when the burdens of belief are taken off of our backs so that we can love and serve God and one another.

The issue is that belief that disregards the love of neighbor is a belief that needs to be overturned. What beliefs do we have that cause us to make laws or develop attitudes that imprison and condemn others to carry a heavy burden? Which of our beliefs or practices are based upon the Accuser's way of blaming, shaming, and condemning.

Jesus sets this woman free. She straightens up and stretches towards the sky and praises God, not Jesus. She gives thanks that God has set her free from the disease, but even more from the ignorance and darkness of her community.

Consider the number of hospitals started by Christians and Jews. In Los Angeles, Good Samaritan Hospital, Little Company of Mary and St. John's Hospital continue to provide quality health care in response to Jesus' setting us free from the ignorance that would see sickness and disease as a punishment from God. We are also blessed by amazing medical centers like Cedars Sinai created by our Jewish brothers and sisters who have continued to find ways to love God and neighbor through medical care.

If Christians and others really believed that disease and all manner of misfortune was the result of a person's sinful life, why would we offer treatment without regard to a person's lifestyle or status as a sinner or a saint?

What other beliefs do Jesus' teaching, life, death and resurrection continue to confront and overturn? What beliefs do we hang onto that lead us to justify our evil actions towards others in the name of God, democracy, some economic system or pecking order in society? Perhaps it is not the woman alone who was bent over and twisted. Beliefs and communities which accept such beliefs as true can be bent over and twisted too. Jesus says: "Stand up! You are free!"

Here is the reading from The Message by Eugene Petersen:

LUKE 13:10-13

Jesus was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn't even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. "Woman, you're free!" He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.

14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, "Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath."

15-16 But Jesus shot back, "You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn't it all right for me to
untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?"

17 When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and redfaced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.

FIRE ON THE EARTH

2010-08-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was ordained a priest in 1983. I was 37 years of age and by the standards of that year, I was considered an late bloomer for priesthood. My first year serving at St. Cross in Hermosa Beach my Rector, Jack Eales, went on vacation for the entire month of August through the first week in September, leaving me “in charge” and the preacher/celebrant every Sunday. That first year, I did 13 weddings during the month of August, more than most priests do in a year. It was a great time of learning for me.

As I was considering this coming week’s readings, I decided to take a look back and see how I preached this difficult passage from Luke. In my first years of ordained ministry, I preached from a script and so what follows is exactly what I preached on August 14, 1983. As you read what I wrote back then, see if you can tell how or if I have I changed my understanding of our shared faith.

God's Peace in the Gospel,
Bob+

When I was a kid, I used to watch all of those old westerns that would start on Saturday morning and run into the afternoon. The plots were all pretty much the same, but when you are 8 you really aren’t much of a critic. Anyway, I did learn a few things from watching these movies. In addition, to the proper procedure for dealing with snakebites, I also learned how to sterilize a Bowie knife to do such simple surgical procedures as digging slugs or arrowheads out of arms, legs, or other parts of the human anatomy.

The older folks among us may recall watching Roy Rogers, Gene Audry, or John Wayne hold his trusty Bowie knife over a blazing hot flame to destroy all of the bacteria which collected on such knives. I was sure that the heating was needed, since the hero used his knife for killing bears, peeling pears and apples, and gutting fish. He usually only wiped his blade off on his pants before returning it to its case.

It’s funny how that picture of a cowboy holding his knife over an open flame to sterilize it, came to my mind when I read today’s Gospel lesson.

But Jesus’ use of the word “fire” brought to mind this one purpose of fire—to purify. In fact, the Greek word for fire found in our reading today is “Π Υ ρ,” from which we get our word, “pure” and its derivatives, “purify” and “pyre.”

For our Jewish brothers and sisters, fire became a powerful symbol. Fire purified.

Fire filled the darkness with light and allowed them to push back the effects of darkness. Fire cooked their food, heated their water, and warmed their bodies on a cold night.

Fire could also be used in warfare to punish one’s enemies. It was a terrifying instrument of destruction.

Fire could be used to purify, to light the darkness, to take care of bodily needs, or to punish.

Because fire was so important to our ancient ancestors, it was used to represent God’s presence. In the sacrificial system of Israel, fire was used to burn certain animals as sacrifices for the wrong doings of the people. By such sacrifices, it was believed that God forgave those offering the sacrifice and purified them.

Now this may sound somewhat primitive, but It was certainly a big step forward from the pagan practice of burning people as sacrifices. Notice how in this system the fire represented God’s presence and participation in the purification of the one offering the sacrifice.

God’s participation in the history of Israel is therefore represented by fire in one form or another.

When God made his covenant with Abram, a flaming torch passed by him.

When Moses received his Call to liberate his people from Egypt and again when he was given the Law by which they were to live, the presence of God was represented by a bush which was on fire, but which not burn up.

The Children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire by night as they fled from Egypt into the Wilderness.

Mount Sinai flamed and fumed and shook while the Children of Israel encamped below its summit, waiting for Moses to return from his meetings with God.

On Mount Carmel, Elijah called down fire from heaven to burn up slain sacrificial animals doused with water to authenticate his Call and Word as a prophet of God.

As you can see, fire is a powerful symbol for the presence of God as he lights the way for his people in times of darkness, cares for their needs, and seeks to purify them.

Jesus said: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled.” What does he mean by this?

Is the fire he hope to kindle designed to provide light where there is darkness? Or to provide for our bodily needs? Or to somehow purify us? Or is the fire an act of divine warfare against mankind?

We may be tempted to believe that this last possibility is the correct understanding of Jesus’ words, especially when much of the rest of the passage seems to support this choice. Listen to his words: “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

He then goes on to describe these divisions which even divide families. So what kind of fire is Jesus so anxious to kindle and cast on us? Why does he seem to reject the currently held title of “Peacemaker?” Why is he intent on bringing division?
Jesus is referring to his own death when he speaks of casting fire upon the earth.

The fire that he hopes to cast upon the earth is the purifying, guiding, revealing, creative Spirit of God which is released on earth by his sacrificial death on the cross. Remember that the fire of Jewish sacrifice and history represented the presence of God. By Jesus’ words, he means to say that God is in him as both the sacrifice and the sacrifice.

This sacrifice of God in Christ thereby puts an end to the need for further sacrifice. In Jesus’ death, God sets us free from our destructive, self-hating need to condemn and punish ourselves and others for the way things are. On the cross, God does something for us which we could never have done for ourselves—he offered his unconditional love and forgiveness.

He, through his death, demonstrated his unwillingness to leave us alone. His fire has been cast upon the earth to lead us, to purify us, and to care for us. He refuses to butt out, but instead keeps pushing and pushing closer and closer to us with his love and forgiveness and invitation to join him in his Kingdom of Giving.

And as this kingdom emerges, it will confront and challenge our kingdom of Taking in our individual lives and in our corporate life. God’s Kingdom of Giving cannot peacefully co-exist with a kingdom of self-contempt, self-hatred, and self-destruction.

As surely as Christ bore the Kingdom of God in his body, just as surely did he suffer death at the hands of the rulers of our kingdom of taking. His presence and giving of himself judged the values and the institutions of our world; we crucified him. And by our judgment of him, we judged ourselves as we always have and always will—harshly.

And by our punishment of him, we punished our selves and always have and always will—without mercy.

And as long as we insist upon such harshness; so long as we choose to live without forgiveness for ourselves or for others; so long as we continue to mercilessly sacrifice ourselves and others to our own self-hatred—we shall perish in a world of dark bitterness and pain.

But you don’t have to. Jesus came to cast fire on the earth—the fire of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. And we call this fire the Holy Spirit—that peculiar third person of the Trinity whose power to forgive was released on the cross of Christ and speaks to us of our own tragic death.

It is the Holy Spirit who glows with the fire of God’s love and forgiveness and new life. And it is the Holy Spirit who blazes forth from the pyre of our past and offers us a new future. And it is the Holy Spirit who will complete the work begun on the cross. The mysterious and joyful coming of God’s kingdom.

“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy life-giving powers,
Come shed abroad a Savior’s love,
And that shall kindle ours.”

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed by God’s Kingdom, now and forever. Amen.

GOD'S PURSE NEVER WEARS OUT

2010-08-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

As a small child, my Grandfather took a little block of wood and carved it so that it looked like me. He even colored in my flat-top hair cut with a pencil. I still have that small piece of wood. I have kept it for more than 57 years. The photo above shows that worn piece of wood so you will have an idea of what I am talking about.

No one else would see much value in the wooden head. I doubt if a thief would ever break into my home and steal it, but if I ever lost it, I would grieve deeply.

The value of that treasure is in the love that it represents and the love that moved my Grandfather to carefully carve it. When Jesus speaks of treasure in this week’s Gospel, his words remind me of God’s love for me in creating me, the whole human family, and this beautiful creation which we share. My value, our value, creation’s value comes from the love that called us and it into being.

And yet our human story speaks of how we have forgotten what gives us and creation value. We have forgotten the goodness and love that moves from God’s heart as a Word that creates, sustains, and constantly redeems and renews us. When we forget that it is God’s love for us that gives everything value, a sense of holiness, then we seek to replace this life-giving truth with our own limited tribal values and concerns.

The result of this substitution of our limited and very partial image of value and love is the creation of a world where thieves break through and steal and where moth and rust corrupt. It is a world of loss, death, and destruction driven by our fears.

For those who read or hear Jesus’ words about "treasure in heaven" as a green light to continue to live as if God is not the source of value and love (what and who God loves is valuable beyond measure), the world is divided into haves and have nots. The haves enjoy the treasures of God’s love and creation while the have nots suffer outside the gates.

In our forgetting God, we have even used religion to justify this division. And so, Jesus speaks to those who would follow him about rediscovering the true treasure that God gives to all of his children.

Jesus says: "Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Jesus offers us a vision of the truth (in Greek this word means “Not Forgetting). The truth is that God is the one who sells all that is God’s and gives alms (literally “Mercy”)to us. God does not have a purse that wears out because God is constantly giving rather than storing up in a possessive way.

The treasure in heaven is poured out on us every moment and every moment between moments. Thieves cannot steal the love of God that creates the treasure on earth. Even killing the One who “comes in the name of the Lord,” will not turn the treasures of creation into our possessions. The treasure of heaven continues to be God’s free gift of love that comes down like manna in our wilderness of want.

To follow Jesus is to follow the One who sent him. To be moved by a love that does not hoard and fearfully hold onto life is to live in the abundance of God's grace. God has no purse that wears out. God sells all that is God’s and gives us mercy. That is what I see in Jesus. That is what Jesus sees in God the Father. That is what I saw in my Grandfather's gift to me.

The love that spoke to me in a hand carved image made by my Grandfather was simply an old man trying to share what he knew to be true. God is love and we cannot possess it. We can only accept it and share it freely with others.

Jesus said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

“Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

2010-07-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a friend try to get you involved in a family dispute over money or any other serious matter?

If you have had such an experience then you might understand one reason Jesus opts out of such a request and instead offers a parable that puts a mirror up for all of us to see deeply into our lives. Jesus says to person asking for Jesus to judge the case: “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

Well, isn’t Jesus promoted as the Judgment Day Judge by many in religion? So, why does he seem to reject this image of him as a judge of us and between us?

Last week’s sermon focused on the “certain place” where Jesus prayed being the place of shame and death which we humans create out of fear and wrath. No one wants to be seen as a mistake, unwanted, reject-able, and the ultimate problem whose exclusion or death is the solution to what is wrong in the world, but Jesus goes to that place to pray. Jesus communicated with his Father from that place because that is where he knew he could most clearly speak and hear.

I would also suggest that this certain place is the place where human beings can speak and hear God in Christ most clearly.

It is that certain place where we were baptized and given new life. It is that certain place where all of our attempts to be independent of God and at odds with our neighbors over this issue or the next are ended. It is the place of reconciliation where we no longer need to fight for our identity, but are given our identity as a beloved child of God and a community whose very existence could only have happened if God in Christ entered the place of shame and death, not as a judge, but as our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.

The Nicene Creed says that Jesus will come again to “judge the living and the dead,” and our Sunday Gospel reading contains a judgment parable of a rich man getting richer due to an unusually grand bumper crop and having a conversation with himself about how he will handle his new windfall of wealth. Have you ever wondered what you would do if you hit it rich or richer than you are today? What can we learn about the rich man, ourselves, and God as judge from this story?

Jesus was judged by us to be worthy of death and to be condemned to that certain place of shame and exclusion. It is our humanly created hell reserved for those whom we identify as the problem for all that is wrong in the our world and whose exclusion and destruction is the solution that brings peace and unity to those who cast out such problem people. Since Jesus lived and prayed out of that place into which we were soon to cast him, it is we, who in casting him out, are judged by our actions. Jesus will come again and again in our lives as a moment of judgment until the time of our deaths.

Please read the story Jesus tells of the rich fool.

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

What makes this man foolish?

Is it his wealth? He seems to be living the American Dream of self-sufficiency. He will be in good shape well into his retirement and right up until the time of his death. He really has it all. Talk about a defined benefits retirement plan, this guy has to build bigger barns to accommodate his new found wealth. Some might be thanking God for showering such gifts upon them, but not this fellow. He lives his life in isolation from others. His conversation is with himself. He even talks to “his soul” as if he is his soul’s benefactor. There is nothing and no one who seems to be part of this man’s life that matters. As it is said: “It is, after all, ALL ABOUT ME.”

Some might envy this man or at least his wealth. Some might think that they could do bigger and better things with his money such as giving to worthy causes to help those less fortunate, but is that really the question Jesus is trying to ask us through this parable? Is this parable designed to scare us or threaten us with God’s judgment so that we will give to the poor?

Judgment, as human beings have constructed it with a hell of poverty, shame, and death for most people and a paradise of privilege for a relatively few, is not like the judgment of God. When God judges us, we are given a mirror in which to view ourselves or perhaps we see our behavior in a candid camera moment and discover that we have acted rather badly. This parable is just such a judgment candid camera moment offered by Jesus from that certain place of shame and death that is the cross.

It is offered as an extreme example of what paradise lost looks like. The rich fool would never go anywhere near that certain place where Jesus prays. His prayer life is with himself. He is one who is turned in on himself and it really does not matter how much wealth he has or does not have that matters, it is that he does not have a conversation or a relationship with the source of his very life and his final destination. In short, this man is a “dead man walking.”

Jesus must have known that those who were asking him to judge between them over an inheritance issue were somewhat like this rich fool and he tells this story to invite them back into a conversation, a prayer life with God. He invites them to that certain place where wealth, reputation, and even death do not finally matter, but only the conversation with God that will bring them to life again.

Greed is what Jesus warns us against. Greed, a desire for more and more stuff, when we lack the one thing we need really need, a relationship with God. The conversation with God begins when our treasure is not calculated in possessions, but in relationships with God and with others. The judgment of God is our judgment of God and others. What survives death, reputation, and wealth (fool’s gold) is communion with the One the world judged to be rubbish, garbage, and worthy of shame and death in that certain place to which Jesus calls us to join him in prayer.

LEARNING TO PRAY OR BECOMING THE PRAYER?

2010-07-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

For many people prayer can be a boring and tiresome waste of time. For others it is something that religious phonies do to get attention and to pretend they have more power with God than the rest of us. Others find prayer quaint and harmless.

Of course, when we are in trouble or someone we love is in trouble and we don’t seem to have a way to humanly extricate ourselves from these troubles, we desperately take up the practice of prayer. But is prayer only something we do when we are in trouble? We are told to pray in such circumstances and if we read through the Psalms, we discover all manner of prayers offered by those who are in trouble.

Perhaps a comparison to something we know better will be of help in understanding prayer. Suppose you are in relationship with someone, but you have not actually spoken to that person for years except times when that person is in need of help.

Parents sometimes experience teens who don’t listen to them, but who rush to seek help from Mom or Dad when life gets too overwhelming for them to handle. At such times, the teen seems to revert to a younger age and becomes totally dependent on the parent for help in bailing them out of whatever jam they have gotten themselves into. In fact, sometimes teens seeking help from their parents remind us of when they were infants or young children and could not deal with what life was bringing them.

I know this scenario well having seen it repeated almost daily during my 31 years in public education and afterwards. If prayer is simply a conversation between God and us and does not include a relationship of trust and maturity born of a long time of relationship, I can see why most people see this as boring and irrelevant.

And to be honest, most of us do not experience grave difficulties on a regular basis and so, if prayer is simply calling out for help when we are in trouble, it does not really seem to constitute a mature, loving, and trusting relationship that flows out of daily conversation nor does it comprehend God as anything other than a super charged and all powerful bailer outer Mom or Dad. So did Jesus offer a different understanding of prayer than simply crying for help to someone we barely know or even like?

When and where we you first taught to pray?

I have been praying most of my life. I can remember around the age of 8 or 9 expanding beyond the bedtime prayers and graces at meals that we practiced as a family to include quiet times of conversation with God. These other times might have been considered daydreaming by the casual observer, but for me they were intimate times of quiet during which I asked questions and sat in unhurried anticipation of some response from God. For some reason, I was okay with whatever responses came my way during the process. I really had a sense of deep peace and the presence of someone who loved me and would hang with me.

Aside from these quiet times alone, the family dinner table, and the side of our beds, I was not aware of any other way or locations for praying. But once I became an Episcopalian at the age of 8, I discovered that the church was a place where I could join in prayer with everyone else in a common conversation with God.

We sang our prayers, we said our prayers, we stood up, sat down, and kneeled as part of our praying together. As a small boy, I came to love the places of prayer in my life. Of course, they were associated with people. My Mom and Dad at our dining table and mostly my Mom at our bedside were my teachers. At church, there were so many adults who helped me learn to pray from the priests, the lay readers, the Sunday School teachers, and sometimes the helpful adult sitting next to me in the pew when I could not find my place in The Book of Common Prayer. And I never lost that very special sense of sitting alone with God in a one on one conversation.

I wanted to learn how to pray when I saw my parents and others doing it. I am sure Jesus’ disciples may have been similarly motivated by watching Jesus pray. Being adult Jews, I can’t imagine that their parents and the synagogues in which they grew up did not teach them how to pray. So much of our prayer life as Christians comes from this remarkable Jewish heritage of prayer.

So, why would they need to ask Jesus for lessons on how to pray? How many Christians spend their lives praying and still feel that they do not know how to pray? From my experience over the years, many Christians have a sense that they are not praying as well as they think they should or could. Is it a matter of a learned technique or memorizing the right words, or assuming a prayerful posture that makes us better as people of prayer?

Prayer is conversation that leads to a relationship with God and Jesus spent a great deal of his time in conversation with the One he called “Father” or “Daddy.” Just as we learn about other people through conversation, so we learn about God through our conversations with him. I guess the disciples saw something in Jesus’ conversation with his Father that they wanted in their own lives.

I imagine this scene from the Gospel as the disciples watching Jesus in conversation with God and slowly moving towards Jesus to overhear the conversation. I know that I have certainly found myself standing next to wise and learned people who are conversing with one another to just hear where their conversation is going and to learn something new.

So, too, did the disciples listened in, as Jesus prayed and when he finished, they asked if they could be part of the conversation too. What words might one use to break into the conversation between God the Father and God the Son, to share with them in the divine human conversation that builds that relationship of love? Jesus says clearly that when they pray they should begin by saying:
Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial."

In Luke, Jesus does not say “our” or “my” Father. He simply says “Father.”

When addressing God as Father, Jesus is saying that there is but one Father and that God’s uniqueness is not shared with our earthly parents or any other deity that might claim the title of Father in heaven or on earth. In beginning our conversation with God, we make it clear to whom we are speaking.

When I worked as a chaplain at the Charter Pacific Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in Torrance, one of my great joys was to help those who were trying to get and stay sober make contact with their Higher Power. Alcoholics Anonymous is brilliant in allowing each person to define for themselves who such a Higher Power might be. Does that lead to a belief in a multitude of gods? Some might think so, but in reality, most alcoholics who get sober probably could say that they turned their life and their wills over to the care of whatever Higher Power there is who can get and keep them sober.

Just so, for Christians we ask God as Father to make Himself known clearly as the only one whose kingdom we desire to become our way of life in order for us to live in healthy and joyous relationship with ourselves and others. That is what “hallowed be your name,” means to me. We are asking God as Father to be the very One who can deliver our heart’s deepest desire for a life that is forgiven, restored, joyous, and of service to others. In A.A, some might call that living a sober life after having had a spiritual awakening as a result of following the 12 Steps of the program.

In our conversation with God, Jesus leads us to ask for our daily bread. Have you ever wondered why there are so many people who starve to death in our world? Consider this simple phrase from the conversation Jesus teaches us to have with the Father whose abundance has somehow not managed to flow to every person. To pray for daily bread is a confession of sorts. We confess that while we may have more than enough to meet our needs and the needs of our families we fall short of sharing God’s abundance with others. The Lord’s prayer challenges us to question how much is enough to meet our needs for today and challenges the assumption that there is not enough of God’s abundance for everyone to be given their “daily bread.”.

As Jesus takes his disciples and us through his conversation with God, we hit upon our need to be forgiven the ways we violate others. A daily inventory of things said, done, or left undone is important, but Jesus is also speaking of the macrocosm of sin, the many ways our institutions and beliefs about money, possessions, and the stewardship of God’s creation intentionally or unintentionally disrespect the boundaries of others. Is my wealth somehow connected to someone else’s inability to provide daily bread for his or her family? Jesus understands the way the world works and calls us to live by his Father’s ways.

While in our daily conversations with God as individuals or as a church, we will fail to become the very prayer we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” The disciples failed over and over again to allow God’s ways to become their ways. Throughout the telling of the Gospels, we read of in-fighting between the disciples over who is the greatest among them. We read about their negative response to Jesus’ command to feed hungry people claiming that they did not have the resources. We know that as Jesus goes to Jerusalem and then to the cross, these disciples will end their side of the conversation with God. Their prayers will cease.

Jesus taught them to follow him. Jesus taught them to pray a certain way. Jesus became the prayer that bears his name. It is the great I AM prayer. It is the conversation between God the Father and all of creation, including us, as it is spoken through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

If prayer is boring to you, perhaps you might want to join in with Jesus as he prays all of creation into the Kingdom of Heaven. Will that change you? How can it not? Be the prayer.

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial."
And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

2010-07-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

Mark Twain

THE COLLECT FOR THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Do you ever really wonder what God expects of you?

Our collect for this Sunday asks God to grant us the ability to know and understand what things we ought to do. Mark Twain's quote above may be interpreted several ways.

Here is the way I read it. What I don't truly understand does not really bother me. At some point we all reach our intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical limitations and what lies beyond these limits remains incomprehensible and perhaps awe producing, but seldom bothersome or troubling.

For example, I have long since stopped trying to understand the more complex realities of electricity. I have settled for knowledge that allows me to turn the light switch on and off and to change a light bulb when required.

We accept that there are just some things that we are not capable of understanding. Of course such limits vary from one individual to another. There are intellectual giants who wrestle with the mysteries of the physical universe while others simply benefit from the work of such giants. Throughout our lives we all surrender to our limits and live humbly and unbothered within them.

From this perspective, I understand where Twain was coming from. But, what about the parts of the Bible that he did understand? What were those parts all about?

My first read of this quote brought to mind those stories and teachings of Jesus that invite us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (July 4th proper) and then this week the Gospel from Luke presses us to define what a neighbor is.

Jesus is not presenting us with any major intellectual challenge in asking us to judge who our neighbor is as he recounts the story of the Good Samaritan. Almost anyone who viewed how the Samaritan cared for the beaten, battered, and robbed man on the side of the Jericho road would probably answer as the attorney did who asked Jesus for a working definition of the term, “neighbor.”

What is bothersome is how such a story shines a light on who I consider to be my neighbor and who I am willing to reach out and help. I understand that Jesus is saying that neighbors are people who help others who are in need regardless of whether they like the other person or the group that such a person comes from. But am I willing to trust that Jesus’ direction is worth traveling?

It is a nice thought, but in the “real world” we might say that such openness to assisting those who are our enemies or unknown to us is unworkable or just too idealistic.

Before we go too far in our objections to Jesus’ path, consider that the Samaritans and the Jews were sworn enemies. From Jerusalem to Jericho (the road on which this story takes place), there were many travelers all at risk of being beaten, robbed, or even murdered by highway bandits. The Samaritan acts out of a sense of deep pity for this stripped and half-dead victim of violence and robbery. The word used to describe his response to this victim is the same word used to describe Jesus’ response to a person he heals.

Emotions move us to action. Pity is a strong emotion which allows a person to identify so deeply with the victim that he or she responds as if they were coming to the aid of themselves or someone they dearly love. Neighbors are people who can see themselves in the random, unknown, and perhaps hostile victims they find on their path from here to there.

To understand this idea of pity and what it means to be a neighbor is bothersome because it denies us our sanctuary of prejudice about others. Jesus used a Samaritan in this story to throw light on his interrogator’s inner world and external attitudes towards others, including Jesus. For a moment, consider that Jesus finally was labeled a sinner on par with the Samaritans and yet in all that he did in his work on earth he did it in response to his pity on the victims that are scattered along the world’s highways and backstreets. Jesus saw himself in every victim, he was moved by mercy.

So, as we prepare to hear the story of the Good Samaritan this Sunday we might ask ourselves this question: “Am I bothered by my clearer understanding of what God wants me to do?” The promise of the power to carry out what we know to be what God wants of us may be that same power which filled Jesus and the Samaritan to reach out in love and compassion for the victims in our world without prejudice or bias or malice. Am I moved by the pity born of seeing myself, like Jesus, in the victims of our world?

The Good News about being bothered by what we understand is that it shows we are hearing God speak to us in the stories and teachings of Jesus. May we always be bothered and empowered to do God’s will. May God’s mercy move us all to become good neighbors.

Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION

2010-07-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

A person or a nation that does not honestly remember their past cannot take action in the present to change what will be in the future.

Happy Fourth of July!!. “Born in the USA, I was.” Although Bruce Springsteen's popular song by this name does not describe my experiences growing up in the United States,but it does capture a time and a place during our history that defined and impacted many people of my generation.

His lyrics describe how a young man from a tough neighborhood experienced coming of age in the United States and then going to Viet Nam where he lost friends in the war. Returning from war without his “brother” who was killed there, he finds no real consolation at the V.A, but takes his place among the workers of America.

Bruce Springsteen and I are close to the same age. Our lives span 27% of our nation’s 234 year history and it is from that perspective and with a love for our nation that I write. The celebration of our independence day, the birthday of a new nation whose founders sought to do things differently than the sometimes despotic homelands from which they had come is very important.

This new land was to be a proverbial place of “milk and honey.” Those early colonists had to survive some very difficult hardships in order to start a new life in America. They were not perfect, but they hoped that in their new home they would find something very different from what they had left behind.

As colonial life improved and self-governance at the local levels emerged, the colonists began to develop a new identity. There was great suspicion of kings and queens and royalty and religious hierarchy among the early founders of this country. They were people of the Enlightenment who saw great value in the freedom of the individual to rise above the ranks into which they had been born.

In distancing themselves from the “old country,” they sought to divorce themselves from the very history that had given rise to these new ideas of freedom and individual rights. When we deny the reality of our past, as a nation, a church, a community, a family, or an individual, we may just be closing the door on the very sins, forgiveness, and grace we need to “form a more perfect union.” In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is said that without the ability to be honest, it is almost impossible to get and stay sober.

AA’s insight is a gift of Judeo-Christian spirituality. Consider the bloody and often difficult to understand texts of the Old Testament. There are many people who think that the history of Israel as it is presented in the Jewish scriptures is so filled with lies, murder, hypocrisy, duplicity, greed, infidelity, and all manner of corrupt things that it is of no spiritual value to us. Such criticism fails to understand that an honest telling of our story (confession) is the prelude to spiritual growth as a human being and as a community or nation.

In fact, there was a movement early in our history as a church to dump the Old Testament because it did not represent the true God of love and peace we have come to know in Jesus Christ. But the church, led by the Holy Spirit, rejected this movement. Even at the time of the founding of our nation, Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Gospel by excluding all but Jesus’ more ethical teachings rather than deal with the historical setting in which those teachings stood in sharp contrast.

Failure to be honest and open about this history is symptomatic of our unwillingness to look at our own history as individuals or the history of the nation and the world. Jesus preached repentance as did John the Baptist and all of the prophets of Israel. They understood that without a “Searching, Fearless, Moral, Inventory” the coming of God’s Kingdom is delayed. Jesus’ life and our rejection of him are part of our human history. This singular event sums up, anticipates, and comprehends all of the ways we act that result in a world that is not as our hearts truly desire it to be.

To get from where we are to the Kingdom of Heaven requires honesty, humility, compassion, and God’s grace. We must be willing to be open to the parts of our history which are not flattering or which are downright horrible. Sins that are not confessed turn our quest for the Kingdom of Heaven into a circular path of denial and repeated and predictable movement away from God. We are blessed in our country to have a few historians who seek to tell our story in an honest and balanced way.

They, like our Jewish brothers and sisters who faithfully told their story, seek truth that can set the nation free from a false sense that the past is always better than the present day. It is the vocation of the church to face our own dark past and to confess our complicity in evil against our brothers and sisters. As long as we are engaged in denying such evil, we are in some way or another engaged in perpetuating it.

Is the United States the Kingdom of Heaven? The answer to this question is found in the very founding document of our nation. I believe that God’s Kingdom is “the more perfect union” that is spoken of in the Declaration of Independence. God’s Kingdom is about the universal kinship of all people; justice for the poor and strangers in our land; peace without violence and exclusion and prosperity that overflows in generosity and sharing.

Are we willing to do our part to move this nation towards God’s vision of a humanity that can confess our sins and amend our lives? Can we, as a nation, be as honest about our past as the people of Israel were in confessing their sins and seeking God’s will? Each year we celebrate this special birthday of our nation, I hope we will all consider our vocation as Christians and as citizens of the United States of America.

Happy Fourth of July! God bless America.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

2010-06-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Gospel for this week may be one of those that is most difficult for us to understand in our culture. It is about how one responds to people who treat us like dirt just because of some idea that the other person has of who we are. My first few years as a teacher I also worked as a counselor at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard during the summer months helping young people integrate into the workforce.

One of the other counselors I was blessed to know was African-American. Mitch taught school in Compton and was considered one of the most outstanding educators and baseball coaches in Southern California.

During one of our meals together I asked Mitch about how he ended up in Los Angeles and in teaching. He was a graduate of Grambling State University in Louisiana where he had been a star athlete. Mitch was older than me and when he told me about his attempts to find a teaching job in Compton, I was shocked. Apparently in the 1950s when Mitch came to Los Angeles with his young family, he could not get a job because of his race, the color of his skin. So, he went to work for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. As the 1950s moved into the 1960s, Mitch finally secured a job as a teacher at Compton High School.

As I got to know Mitch better, I asked him about the challenges of being an African-American. He told me a story about his family driving from Los Angeles to his family home in Louisiana non-stop because they were not allowed to lodge in hotels along their southern route. He said that one morning he tried to buy some coffee at a small diner in a small Texas town and was told they would not serve him unless he went to the back door where they would sell him coffee out of the kitchen.

Mitch and his family were just like most families heading across country to see their families and yet they were shown no hospitality because of the prejudicial culture of those days. As he told his personal story, I wondered if I would have been inhospitable to Mitch and his family if I had been in a position to offer coffee the way whites were offered coffee in that Texas town. I wondered if I would have had the courage to offer Mitch and his family a room in a hotel along his southern route. I wondered if I would have had the courage of my faith to resist the prejudice of the culture in which I lived.

I also wondered how I would have reacted to such inhospitable treatment. Would I have just shrugged it off and accepted that this was just the way things were? Or, would I have gotten angry and cursed the people who treated me and my family that way? Would I have wanted to throw a rock through the window of the diner? Or, would I have prayed to God to send down a fire to burn up those folks who had treated me like dirt? What would you have done in response to the prejudicial culture of that day? What do you hope you would have done?

So, we will hear the story from Luke this Sunday about Jesus and his Jewish disciples heading off to Jerusalem. Most Jews might have taken a more circuitous route to get to Jerusalem to avoid passing through the territory of the Samaritans. Jews and Samaritans had a long history of hatred, suspicion, and downright inhospitable and hostile exchanges. Yet, Jesus “set his face towards Jerusalem” by way of Samaria and he sends his disciples ahead of him to seek out a place to rest and eat.

Once the Samaritans see where Jesus and his disciples are headed (Jerusalem), they turn cold and unwelcoming. James and John, two of Jesus disciples, ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven on the heads of these horrid Samaritans. Jesus not only tells them “no,” he tells them “NO!” Jesus has been preparing his disciples to carry on his life of love, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation in the world. He is heading to Jerusalem where his death will trigger the most powerful and eternal change in our human understanding of God and of who we are and who we can become.

Jesus rebukes James and John the way he rebuked Peter when Peter tried to prevent Jesus from going to Jerusalem. Jesus labeled Peter, Satan, the accuser and his rebuke of James and John carries this same strong message for them and for those who would be Jesus’ disciples. The Kingdom of Heaven is not brought into the world by threats and violence carried out in the name of God, but by a willingness to suffer loss and to count it gain.

This does not mean that injustice is passively accepted. In fact, the death of Jesus on a Roman cross is God’s judgment. This is a strange judgment according to our human culture of death and violence because it allows us to judge God and sentence God to the worst curse humanity can exact. It is our behavior which is made visible. It is no longer “dissembled nor cloaked,” but made manifest, open for all to see. God judges us by allowing us to see how we judge, condemn, and try to get rid of God.

Have you ever treated someone very badly in a more private setting and then discovered that your behavior was actually observed in a “candid camera” moment? The cross is such a moment for the whole world and it is repeated over and over again when our lack of charity and our attempts to have it our way push others aside with contempt or without concern for who they are. Each and every one of those moments are “Come to Jesus” moments of judgment.

For Peter, James, and John dissembling and cloaking of this complex process of sin seems to look very different. Peter seeks to save Jesus from sure and certain death, while James and John seek to have God reign down sure and certain death upon their enemies. Both are part of the complex, confusing, cunning, baffling, and powerful workings of sin that divide us and keep us divided as if God intended such hostility among his children.

To be a disciple, a follower, a witness of Jesus, is the result of experiences of coming to Jesus, perhaps being rebuked, not by an angry and violent God, but by Christ, the deeply abiding Christ, full of our humanity and of our divine image, who calls us out of our denials, our dissembling and cloaking, and into a world of hospitality, grace, forgiveness, and self-offering life.

To be sure, leaving behind our prejudices is difficult. Those who refused to serve Mitch and his family as they drove across the Southern states would have risked their reputations, their livelihoods, and even their lives if they had showed any compassion in the face of the law of sin and prejudice (Whites Only). When we hear the call to follow Jesus, we also hear fear remind us of other, more important things we must do. Jesus encountered several folks who thought they might follow this interesting rabbi, but who still had other matters more important on their plate.

Perhaps the owner of the diner that refused Mitch a cup or two of coffee so that he and his wife could stay awake and drive through the night to their home had excuses why he could not or would not treat Mitch with God’s love that rebukes such inhospitable and sinful behavior. Perhaps we can look at our own way of living and see times when we have gone along with what was expected of us, the safe path that allows others to pay the price for such comfort and regretted or wondered at our lack of courage.

Jesus calls us, not to a new religion, but to life itself. There are many other excuses we can make for not following right now, right here, but if those excuses are just ways of denying a life which is always challenging, transformative, hope-filled, courageous, hospitable, loving, forgiving, creative, and filled to over flowing with mercy, we can expect to hear that inner voice, that still, quiet voice, that roars like a rebuke.

LISTENING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

2010-06-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

If you look below you will find two versions of the collect for this Fourth Sunday after Pentecost and for the reading from Galatians. The first version is the one that will be prayed and read on this coming Sunday. The second versions are the product of prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit try to speak to me through these ancient texts. So, here are the versions of the collect:

Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (traditional)

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving¬kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (June 16, 2010 Version)

O Lord, so fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may have a never-ending love and awe-filled response whenever we hear, speak, or think of your name forit is by your name that we know you as our origin, our redemption, and our only true and final destination and you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your faithful loving-kindness and mercy made known through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

As you can see, there are some similarities and if you were to spend some time reflecting on both you would see how the second version came to be written.
To back track a bit, let me share with you the way I approach each week’s prayer and readings.

I begin my preparation with a prayer to God to open my heart, mind, and Spirit to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that person within the Holy Trinity whose work it is to help us understand Scripture in such a way as to see what we might not otherwise see and to understand more deeply how God’s love is at work in the world around us. The Holy Spirit is a gift to individuals and to the Church and works in both as a way of providing correction and insight for the church and the individual.

Next I read the Collect assigned for the coming Sunday and begin to try put the words of the prayer in terms that I can better understand. I do not try to change the meaning of the text, but simply ask the Holy Spirit to make the prayer come alive for me. I do the same thing with the readings for the day including the Epistle, the Psalm, and the Gospel. Here then is the traditional version of Galatians and my contemporary version. If you have any comments, please feel free to share them with me.

First Reading (Traditional Version) Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

First Reading (June 16, 2010 Version) Galatians 3:23-29

Now before we experienced the faithfulness of God as a result of seeing Jesus trust his life to that faithfulness, we lived in fear of our own violence and the violence of others and so we were willing to surrender our freedom to the law so that it might protect us from ourselves and be the disciplinarian of us all. The law was both our prison cell, but it also gave us a brief reprieve from the terrors we might otherwise do to one another. When we discovered that in Jesus, God’s loving faithfulness had become flesh and blood, we called Jesus, the Christ, meaning the Anointed One of God and we were set free from the fear that made the law our way of keeping ourselves in check.

The law did not enable us to treat one another as children of a loving God and as brothers and sisters, but simply limited the ways we acted out of our fear. The law threatened us with punishment to keep us from acting violently towards each other, but the lived out even to death faithfulness of Jesus promised us that we could all live together in true peace without threat, violence, or exclusion. The faithfulness of Jesus allowed us to lay down our fear and live as he lived.

Everything that we use to use to define ourselves as separate, different, and better than others no longer really mattered. We were no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. That is the name we celebrate as the Promise made to Abraham comes true in the lives of all who live by trusting their lives to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

The Promise that we all might be one is being fulfilled as we live our lives in and through Christ Jesus. He is the sure foundation of loving-kindness and mercy that sets us free from the law whose power is based upon fear and threats.

Do I hear an AMEN?