tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69529786740605047312024-03-13T08:48:56.456-04:00The Adventurous ParsonWe have been in Brockton, MA -- 80 Pleasant StreetUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-55243208994842628842010-12-04T14:59:00.013-05:002010-12-04T15:48:28.949-05:00Last Call at the Starlight Cafe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TPqo4CN_ZHI/AAAAAAAABas/LOmlHy_FkOs/s1600/eichenberg%2B-%2Bjesus%2B%2526%2Bsupper.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TPqo4CN_ZHI/AAAAAAAABas/LOmlHy_FkOs/s320/eichenberg%2B-%2Bjesus%2B%2526%2Bsupper.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546931571681879154" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Advent 1 A </span><div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">November 28, 2010 </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Isaiah 2:1-5 </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Ps. 122 </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Romans 13:11-14 </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Matthew 24:36-44</span><br /><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A friend of mine just returned from a trip to upstate New York, to attend the final service of his childhood church, St. David’s, closing after around 100 years. This St. David’s, however, was not the first church of that name to open – or to close – in that town. An earlier St. David’s was founded in before the Revolutionary War, and existed for about 100 years until it closed. And why did it close – not once, but twice? Patterns of settlement changed. People stopped coming to church on foot, or by horse and buggy. The second St. David’s inhabited a building they bought from a Quaker meeting that also closed – which the new St. David’s was able to buy because they had saved the proceeds from the sale of their first Episcopal church, 100 years before. I don’t really know why this second St. David’s, finally, could not thrive. Was the building too small, too off the beaten path? Who could have known that superhighways would come rushing by, whooshing former townspeople off to greener pastures, or that the size of a parking lot would determine the size of a congregation. But St. David’s surely knows more than others, that the closing of a church does not necessarily mean that its life is over. It might be dead, the fields lie fallow for some time – maybe even a century or more – but that God’s mission somehow has knack – a penchant – a burning desire to come back to life, to thrive for a time – a good long time – and then perhaps lie fallow again until called forth for a new day, a new community, a new expression of the mission of God.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How curious, perhaps, to close this church at the beginning of the church year. But at the beginning of a year we look both forward and back. We long for the peace of Jerusalem, but know it as a city full of violence – and so what vision do we have of the future? One in which those swords are transformed into farming tools. We look to the past for the images, the vision, the hope, that will point us to a new future, that will transform this reality into God’s reality.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our New Testament readings point to the danger of sleepiness: if we don’t pay attention we might just miss God’s new reality even as it breaks over our heads. Jesus underscores the suddenness with which God’s new reality can break into our lives. Right there, in the middle of ordinary things like working in fields, or preparing food: crash! One person is taken, one is left. How can we ever be ready? Were any of us really ready for the closing of this church? If we were ready, how would we know? Like with the death of a loved one, or when a friend moves away: what does it really mean to plan for those things?<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What we can do is to live God’s life to the fullest, to live as though that new reality was already breaking in. Think of this:<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><i>One day Jesus may appear in the clouds, suddenly, like a thief in the night. But before that – as Matthew reminds us – Jesus will appear just around the corner, suddenly, like a hungry person, or a neighbor ill-clothed, or someone sick or imprisoned.</i></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (*)<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God’s new reality is like that: it might be something strange and mysterious, or it might be something so ordinary and plain – and we must be paying attention if we want to see it. Indeed, the life we have is the life God has given us. What this first Sunday of the church year does for us is to encourage us to pay attention to what has been going on, so that we can see where the action of God is going into the future.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many wonderful things have gone on in this place, and in the lives of each of us who have walked through these doors. We have talked about many of those things – the things you brought with you, things which have enriched us all. Some have talked about how the churchgoing habits of their youth were so built in to the very fabric of their being that coming to church every Sunday was just part of who they are. We are all richer for their faithfulness. Others talked about how they found this, or another church, when they were teenagers, looking for friends, stability and meaning. They found it in church, and maybe found it again when they came here. We are all richer for their seeking and finding. Others talked about shattered lives, and how people in this church touched them and made them whole. For others this is a place of beauty and refuge, of hospitality and warmth, a sanctuary apart from the mean streets. We are all richer for the friendship and trust our neighbors share with us.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the midst of all this ordinary church life, God comes. God breaks through when we least expect it, turning what we thought was ordinary into something extraordinary. We may close the doors of this church for a while, for a season, for even a century. But what God has broken through to do here will live on. We will take what has been extraordinary with us, knowing that there will be more than enough to stay right here, and that in God’s good time the hungry will still be fed and the lonely welcomed and joyful congratulated and the weary given rest.<br /><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; " ><i>* David Bartlett, Provoking the Gospel of Matthew, quoted by Kate Huey in Reflections for the First Sunday of Advent, <a href="http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/november-28-2010-first.html">http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/november-28-2010-first.html</a></i></span></p><p class="MsoFooter"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-10412731916799592842010-11-27T13:36:00.010-05:002010-11-27T13:53:10.560-05:00In Christ, all things hold together<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><b>Proper 29 C<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Nov, 21, 2010</b><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jNy3KSiq9_M/S_qUlvciJzI/AAAAAAAABKs/ImjwYPJMZp4/s1600/Royal_Wedding.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 250px;" border="0" alt="" /><div><b>Jeremiah 23:1-6</b></div><div><b>Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79)</b></div><div><b>Colossians 1:11-20</b></div><div><b>Luke 23:33-43</b></div><div><br />There’s going to be another Royal Wedding. Prince William, heir to the British throne, announced his engagement to Kate Middleton. Now we in America are not monarchists – we got rid of them long ago! – but we do love to watch a good Royal Wedding. Or Royal Funeral. Or Royal Anything, when the Queen trots out in that golden carriage and the streets of London are filled with cheering throngs.</div><div><br /></div><div> This last Sunday of the church year is known as the Sunday of Christ the King, when we celebrate that this world really is under the reign of God – a rule of justice, mercy and abundance, a rule of the world as God created it to be.</div><div><br /></div><div> But what do we see when we think of “Christ the King?” Is our image “one surrounded with the art and beauty of a tradition [like that of the English royal family] that is more antique than active? Do we see this figure of salvation as hopelessly outdated and practically mute in these postmodern times?”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>i</i></span> Our first lesson today uses the image of the shepherd-king David as the model of the good king; that is even further away from our imagination, in this landscape of the urban mean streets which we inhabit.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/resources/images/577478/?type=display" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" border="0" alt="" />I was stunned when I read in The Enterprise that heroin costs $5 “a dose.” What IS “a dose” of heroin? Is it a “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” kind of a dose? Could someone overdose with a “$5 dose?” Would that $5 dose cost someone his or her life? Is a life then worth only five dollars?</div><div><br /></div><div>I know that legions of state and city police rounded up dozens of drug dealers this week, and many of them were caught here on the streets of Brockton. There is hope, among police and the families of drug victims, that this will make it better, at least until ever-resourceful criminals find new ways to deal. There is hope that </div><div>no one will die of heroin this week, on the streets of this city, that this week at least no life is worth as little as five dollars.</div><div><br /></div><div> Our gospel lesson is another story of criminal intervention – only in this case it is Jesus who was executed along with the equivalent of drug lords and petty thieves of first century </div><div>Jerusalem. Yet in the peculiar, upside-down understanding of the world that we Christians have, Christ realizes his kingship in his death. At his death they mock him, “This is the king of the Jews.” Even then the dying Jesus turns this idea of kingship on his head, offering salvation not only to his own people, the Jews, but even to these criminals on either side of him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our longings for the rule of a just king are longings to bring the chaos of the world around us into order. We can celebrate the reign of God today, and tomorrow wake up in this same city, where heroin costs $5 a dose and, oh, yes, this church is still closing.</div><div><br /></div><div> As the Episcopal Church leaves this neighborhood, we do so with the pang of knowing that God’s work here is unfinished. But isn’t that the human condition? God’s work with each of us is unfinished. God has much more left to do with us, just as the City of Brockton has a long way to go before it shines with the glory God intends for it. We live in the in-between time: we have heard the Good News, that God’s promises will be fulfilled, but we wait, still, for when that will be completed.</div><div><br /></div><div> Our second lesson, from the letter to the Colossians, are powerful words for those of us who wait. It encourages us to be strong, to give thanks that darkness has been dispelled and assures us that we truly live under the reign of Christ – the image of the invisible God.</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember this phrase, when things get disjointed or confused in your life, or when the city sidewalks are still covered with weeds and drug dealers lurk around your corner, or when the new church you choose doesn’t quite yet feel like home; remember this phrase: in Christ all things hold together. In Christ, all things hold together, and that includes you. Christ, holds all of us, all the fullness of God and all the broken, unfinished-ness of our own lives, together, all of heaven and all of earth, waiting in hope, for the dawn of the new day.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>i Mary W. Anderson, “Royal Treatment,” Living by the Word, The Christian Century, Nov. 15, 2003, p. 18</i></span></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-75638411527858820942010-11-20T20:52:00.008-05:002010-11-20T21:03:10.759-05:00New heavens, new earth, new church<a style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2wpZkQBq2q_ZpHHg0Re1s73CPP9Jjc96irNAIJHKQpHOyxjCM"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 275px; height: 183px;" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2wpZkQBq2q_ZpHHg0Re1s73CPP9Jjc96irNAIJHKQpHOyxjCM" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5534165218721516" >Proper 28 C <br />Nov. 14, 2010 <br /><br />Isaiah 65:17-25<br />2 Thessalonians 3:6-13<br />Luke 21:5-19</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Some say the world will end in fire,</span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >Some say in ice.<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >From what I've tasted of desire<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >I hold with those who favor fire.<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >But if it had to perish twice<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >I think I know enough of hate<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >To say that for destruction ice<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >Is also great<br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">And would suffice.</span><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />If the people of Haiti read that poem by Robert Frost, they might think, “Fire and ice are the only two signs of the end of the world that we have NOT seen.” Centuries of economic and environmental degradation, poverty, corruption, marauding gangsters, hurricanes, then the devastating earthquake, rains, mudslides and now an epidemic of cholera: the people of Haiti often describe their world like Jesus does in this passage from the Gospel of Luke. Survivors of the earthquake told of huddling with their families in doorways or other small, safe spaces, convinced that they were experiencing the end of the world. The people of Haiti faced, and still face, chaos and horrors nearly unimaginable to us. Yes, for God’s sake, END this world. The signs of the end are simultaneously signs of hope that God is about to do a new thing.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >This fall, as we learned that St. Paul’s Church was closing, we read week after week from the prophet Jeremiah, the uncompromising prophet of Israel’s exile in Babylon. Torn from their homes in Jerusalem, from their beloved temple, the people found themselves in what they thought was God-forsaken Babylon – and yet to their surprise, God was there, already, ahead of them. Build and plant in this place, God told them. Seek the welfare of THIS city, this place, this strange land where you have been brought, for in the welfare of this place, this commonwealth, you will find your welfare.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >So we thought about exile, we imagined what it would be like to leave home for a new and strange place, and we heard the testimony of people who had been there ahead of us, people in the past who had been exiles, sent away from home against their will: you can do it, they told us. And not only, “You can do it,” but God is there with you, every step of the way.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >Today’s passage from Isaiah is about what God is saying to the people of Israel when they come back to Jerusalem – their beloved city which is now a WRECK. Imagine this prophecy in Haiti – or here in Brockton: God says, “I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered … be glad and rejoice!”</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >Yes, it is hard to get our heads around what this might mean, what it might look like. But wait: this is not a pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye kind of God we are talking about here. This God talks about not just that new heavens, up there, but a new earth, down here. God knows the earth is prone to disaster, that human beings make stupid decision, that oil wells spew destruction into clear waters, that builders take short cuts with houses that fall and crumble on to babies’ heads. God created perfection in paradise, then even the very first human beings made big mistakes and God threw them out. You could say it has been downhill ever since.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >But in the words of Isaiah, God is now un-doing all those curses, all that anger, all that bleak exile and devastation. God is laying out a new plan for this battered earth and shattered communities, and God is stretching out a hand to us, to be re-builders with God – to work with God to make this holy place shining and blessed once again.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >You have seen that work of re-construction begun here. You have fed the hungry with more than food: you have seen how God’s welcome and compassion make even the most discouraged faces shine. You have seen how cracks of hope have broken through lives of despair – how even the most pernicious weeds can be pried up from the broken pavement, and how beautiful flowers can grow. God has been showering blessings on this place, and we have been on the receiving end.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >When you leave this place and go to a new church home, THAT is what you will take with you. You will know what people in “prosperous” places don’t know: that these prophecies of devastation and restoration are TRUE. That God does throw you into exile, into a strange place, where, nonetheless you find that God has already gotten there ahead of you – that God knows what it is like to live in a neighborhood like this, because God lives here – and that because God lives here, you know that leaving a place like this neighborhood in this condition is not what God has in mind.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >When you join a new church home, you will bring with you blessings that your new congregation can only imagine. You will tell then, Listen: we have seen what God can do with absolutely nothing. We have seen a hint of that new heavens and that new earth; listen, and believe.</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-13872406197900647332010-11-08T09:06:00.020-05:002010-11-08T10:16:45.569-05:00Heroism in God's cause is the mark of a saint<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TNgTmZd482I/AAAAAAAABX8/NhGvRp9yX5k/s1600/All+Saints+batik+chasuble+from+Cameroon.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 276px; height: 205px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TNgTmZd482I/AAAAAAAABX8/NhGvRp9yX5k/s320/All+Saints+batik+chasuble+from+Cameroon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537197292244235106" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >On this All Saints Sunday, I preached a two-part sermon. As St. Paul's Church prepares to close, we are thinking about the many gifts we have received in this place, and the treasures we will take with us wherever we go next. The part of the sermon where I talked about that comes at the end of this post.<br /><br />So I also preached on the All Saints -- on the beatitudes from Luke, particularly powerful after a year of reading Luke and being challenged by the urgency of his Gospel -- and on the familiar readings from Ecclesiasticus and Revelation, the readings from the 1979 Prayer Book lectionary for the day.<br /><br />"Heroism in God's cause is the mark of a saint" is a quote from Robertson Davies, from one of his Deptford Trilogy novels I read years ago, and still remember vividly. Heroism in God's cause could describe the people of St. Paul's Church, who year after year, and after adversity, decline, conflict and shrinking resources, kept open the doors of a church which </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">welcomed absolutely everybody, no matter how hungry or poor or dirty or unkempt or haphazard in their church attendance. The doctrinally pure, and the high-and-mighty prosperous may have fought pitched battles over it, and yes, many who stayed mourned the changes and yearned for a return of the glory days when this was the church of the ruling class. But are not all of our motives, human as we are, at best mixed?</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Nevertheless: in spite of it all, through it all, because of it all, St. Paul's Church embodied the radical hospitality of Jesus, giving its life to this place, this corner of Warren and not-so-Pleasant. Heroism in God's cause is the mark of this Saint Paul. Amen. Alleluia.<br /><br /></span><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" id="internal-source-marker_0.25431207142582446"><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">All Saints Sunday Nov. 7, 2010<br />Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10, 13-14<br />Ps. 149<br />Revelation 7:2-4, 9<br />Luke 6: 20-31<br /><br />This whole past year, we have been reading the Gospel of Luke, where every story echoes the song we first heard from Mary, the mother of Jesus: God is here, to take down the mighty from the thrones and to raise up the lowly, to feed the poor and hungry and to let the rich go away empty, to bring the outcast and the sick and the imprisoned back from their exile into the heart of the community. We read it today, in Luke’s version of Jesus’ sermon, early in his ministry: blessed are you who are poor, you who are hungry, you who are weeping, you who are hated and reviled, and woe to the ones who think they have got it all.<br /><br />God’s vision of the world is upside down from the one of conventional success. Let’s just say God is not interested in the stock market, or some banker’s balance sheet. God’s blessings go to those who need them the most.<br /><br />Remember for the past couple of weeks I have been saying that Luke presents two ways of being righteous; one of those ways – the way of the conventional rule-follower and do-gooder – doesn’t work so well, Luke says. Like in our first reading: praise famous men? Praise the godly ones, who died unknown, blessed and righteous. How many of them, those godly ones, do we treasure in our hearts? Like in our second reading: who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from? Those who have seen more than their share of troubles in this world are given care and refreshment at the very throne of God.<br /><br />Whose side is God on? This passage makes it clear: God is on the side of the ones who have been hungry and thirsty, the ones who have suffered from the heat of the day, the ones who have been lost, the ones who have been weeping.<br /><br />The Gospel conveys a real urgency: Listen! It says, and then Do. Act. Take action on behalf of the people whom God loves. Think about the people you know or have heard of who have done that. They are all of them saints of God, and God means for each of us to be one, too.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >A guided meditation, on what we treasure at St. Paul's:</span> </p></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:Trebuchet;font-size:130%;color:transparent;" id="internal-source-marker_0.25431207142582446" >Think about when you first walked in the door of this church.</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:Trebuchet;font-size:130%;" ><br />For some of you, that was a long time ago. A great deal of your life has taken place within these walls: important events, family gatherings, times to rejoice, times of utter despair. Some of you, like me, have only been here a few years. Many of the important touchstones of our lives have taken place elsewhere. Think about those events. Think about the ones that were richest and most life-giving. Whether they took place here at St. Paul’s, or in some other place of worship, pick one – just one – such an event. Imagine that event in all its richness and beauty. Remember who was there with you, what you saw, what you smelled, what happened there and then.</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:Trebuchet;font-size:130%;" ><br />What about that event made it so special? What still resonates with you today? What was the gemstone of that event, that you will treasure always?</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:Trebuchet;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Come back to the present, and look around this church. All of us walked through these doors for the first time, once upon a time. But we are here now, together, in this place. Think about it. What has kept you here? What about this place drew you to stay here? What is the wellspring of God’s mercy that you find here, that brings you back, week after week?<br /><br />If you could give this thing a name, what would it be?<br /><br />Imagine your life as a line, something you can see, visualize. Some people imagine their lives in a line moving from left to right; others like a movie reel, or things that appear in the foreground or recede back. Just imagine this scope of your life.<br /><br />Now go back to your most treasured memory, that gemstone from the past, that holy moment that took place here or somewhere else, sometime in your own past. Where is that moment on your life line, your life journey? Give it a particular place. Think of it somewhere, in all of its richness and beauty. Anchor it in the map of your memory.<br /><br />Now come to your more recent memory, the “why you keep coming back to St. Paul’s” memory. Where is that on your time line, your life journey? Imagine it, clear and strong and definite.<br /><br />Now, what is the connection between these two things? What is the golden thread of meaning that they share? What do these two things have in common, this gemstone of a holy moment, and this thing that keeps you coming back here, week after week? You embody both of these things: what, other than you, do they share?</span><br /><br /></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;font-family:Trebuchet;font-size:78%;" >Thanks to Rachel R. for the batik chasuble from Cameroon. I love it! And I still wear it!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-71967820132515609842010-11-05T08:31:00.003-04:002010-11-05T08:43:59.218-04:00Salvation has come to this house, and you are the children of Abraham<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.5066938808404389">Proper 26-C Oct. 31, 2010<br />Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Ps. 116:137-144; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10</span><br /><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The theme of “we’re in trouble” really makes it big in the news these days. The election commercials hammer that lesson home – times are tough, my opponent has the moral character of a horned toad, and so you’d better vote for me, or the country will go to rack and ruin. Or those hysteria-breeding news reports, about things that will go very, very wrong unless …. The headlines are full of it: are we sliding into a Japanese-style economic deflation from which there is no recovery? Has the average American become a non-voter who no longer cares who is in charge? Pick an issue – any issue: there is sure to be someone out there worked up over it.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Way back in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, a group of people, with similar urgent concerns, </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TNP6r8qEc5I/AAAAAAAABXY/aFrKobZ3528/s1600/john+the+baptist.jpeg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 130px; height: 142px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TNP6r8qEc5I/AAAAAAAABXY/aFrKobZ3528/s320/john+the+baptist.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536043999892370322" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">came to John the Baptist. Things are really getting bad, they said – maybe they shouted – to him. What then shall we do? John was very straight-forward; you may remember some of what he told this </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">collection of ordinary people:</span></p><p style="margin: 0pt 36pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ (Lk 3:11-14)</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Later on in Jesus’ ministry, even rich people began to be curious – they, too, wanted in on this good news, these promises of the good life now, and for all eternity. You may remember this story:</span></p><p style="margin: 0pt 36pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0pt 36pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A certain ruler asked, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.”’ He replied, ‘I have kept all these since my youth.’ When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ He replied, ‘What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.’ </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Luke 18:18-27)</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t we find echoes of the struggles of our own day in these stories? Don’t’ we all want to do the right thing, to find our groove with God, as it were, to live the good life now, to be saved from our fears and worries and hang-ups? To find a connection with God that will last us into eternal life?</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Last week we read the story of the very righteous religious man – the Pharisee – and the categorical sinner – the tax collector. We talked about how these two represented two schools of thought – two schools of prayer, as it were – about getting right with God. For the Pharisee, getting right with God meant following all the rules – like that rich ruler. But there is a problem with this: according to Jesus, these folks can no more get into heaven than a camel can fit through the eye of a needle. If following</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the rules of righteousness doesn’t work, then WHAT THEN SHALL WE DO? This question begins to take on real urgency: how are we ever going to figure this out?</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" 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" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Which brings us to the second school of prayer, that of John the Baptist, echoed in today’s gospel. Zacchaeus didn’t intend to figure out the answer to these urgent questions; he just wanted to see Jesus. But what he discovered was that Jesus just wanted to see him – the rich tax collector, the categorical sinner, the one who no righteous person would be caught dead with, much less talking and eating with. Jesus wanted to see him. Zacchaeus didn’t know he was looking for salvation, when salvation came looking for him.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then what did Zacchaeus do? He did what John the Baptist advised, and what the rich ruler and the Pharisee could not. He took all his possessions used them in service to God, to the kingdom, to the poor and the ones he might have cheated. He took Jesus into his house – Jesus and his whole entourage of sinners and poor people and women and soldiers and outcasts. Zacchaeus used what some would call “ill-gotten gains” to hold a banquet of abundance and mercy and generosity, to open the doors of his house to everyone Jesus would welcome. Zacchaeus learned that day, when he climbe</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">d down from that tree, that by giving away what he had, there would always be enough to go around.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many years ago, people here at St. Paul’s began holding a banquet for everyone Jesus would welcome. When times were tough, when rich people were worrying about not having enough to go around, you gave it all away. You opened all the doors and welcomed everyone. You learned what Zacchaeus learned, and what the rich ruler couldn’t. Salvation has come to this house, and you are the children of Abraham.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-71517407704807213192010-10-24T18:27:00.006-04:002010-10-24T18:37:25.104-04:00Pharisee + Publican R Us<a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TMSzRRe_4uI/AAAAAAAABWs/EQlEWmEpNyY/s1600/Pharisee+%26+Publican+-+Simon.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 260px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TMSzRRe_4uI/AAAAAAAABWs/EQlEWmEpNyY/s320/Pharisee+%26+Publican+-+Simon.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531743351650378466" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Proper 25-C; Oct. 24, 2010</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Joel 2:23-32; Ps. 65</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Luke 18:9-14</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Where you SIT determines where you STAND.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > It’s the political season. Who knew there were so many people running for office in </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island? Not to mention Nevada, Pennsylvania, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >California and South Carolina? Who knew? So many ads, such scandals, what a lot of … </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >stuff.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Where you SIT determines where you STAND. Do we really believe that someone </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >who served less than a full term as the Governor of, say, Alaska, has any idea what we, in </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Brockton, Massachusetts, might want or need? Some politicians seem so remote from us –</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >like they used to say about Massachusetts politicians (when they were all Republicans, I </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >think) “The Cabots speak only to Lodges, and the Lodges speak only to God.”</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Kind of like that Pharisee in today’s reading. In his case, where you STAND </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >determines how you PRAY.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Imagine a map of the Temple in Jerusalem. In the center, is the Pharisee of today’s </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >reading. For him, being right with God means being separate – it means maintaining a holy </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >boundary of separation between him and the whole nasty world around him. Remember </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >that Jews had a hard time in 1st century Jerusalem. They were living under occupation by the </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Roman Empire, and they could not fully, completely, comfortably, live the way they wanted </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >to live. They wanted to live the Torah life, the life of joyful obedience to God, but at every </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >turn the Romans were making it difficult. It was so tempting just to give up – to break a few </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >rules here or there just to get along, to follow what the occupiers demanded. In order to be </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >faithful Jews, these Pharisees believed, they had to be separate. Righteousness meant being </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >set apart, doing certain things and not doing others.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Now imagine again a map of the Temple in Jerusalem, and on the margins of this </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >grand building we see the tax collector. He does not feel so good about himself. As a Jew, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >working for the Romans, he is a collaborator. He collects the heavy tax the Romans want, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >and that leaves his fellow Jews with less extra money to pay their tithe – the tenth of their </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >income – to support the Temple. By the standards of the faithful Jews who want to maintain </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >their separation from the Romans, this tax collector will never be good enough to get inside </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >the Temple. God could not possibly hear his prayers. After all, he deals with nasty, unclean </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >things – he deals with unclean people and collects money that will go not to the Temple but </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >to Rome, to fill the coffers of those awful pagan emperors. The tax collector’s money will </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >never be good enough to pay his tithe to the Temple, and so he will never be able to stand </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >in that place where his prayers will go to God. So, you see: where you STAND determines </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >how you pray. If you are able to stand in the Temple, you do so assured that God will hear </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >your righteous prayers. If you cannot pay your tithe, or if your money is not good enough to </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >pay the tithe, you will never be righteous enough to pray in any words that would get to </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >God.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > The Pharisee reads the Torah, and believes that the way to righteousness is separation </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >and purity. That is one way to God. But then Jesus comes along and finds another reading </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >there in the ancient texts. Jesus preaches that the way to righteousness is mercy. The Torah </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >wants us to stand up for those who have nothing, to care for the widow and orphan, to </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >welcome the stranger, to give sight to the blind and to let the prisoners go free. For Jesus, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >also, where you stand determines how you pray, but in Jesus’ case the place to stand is on </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >the margins, on the edge of the Temple where only the less than pure can stand. Those are </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >the prayers God hears, Jesus tells us. The righteous are the ones who have no choice about </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >where they stand. They know they can never measure up, those for whom fasting is not an </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >option, and who do not have any money left after what has to go to Caesar to give their </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >tenth to the Temple. They know they are sinners. They know what they don’t have, and they </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >know what they need: they need God. They need the mercy of God just to get through each </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >day, each week. When they stand there, on the edge of the Temple, they stand there </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >needing God, and as Jesus reads the Torah, this means that those people go away righteous. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br />The tax collector and his ilk – God listens to their prayers, and God is standing there with </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >them.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Now this doesn’t mean that the Pharisees are such bad people. No one lives well </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >under the oppression of an occupying army. They have plenty of examples in the tradition </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >that tell them that this is the way to behave: they want to stay right with God.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br />But, Jesus says, this doesn’t work anymore. Maintaining status and privilege comes at </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >a high cost, and the cost is this right relationship with God. It’s not about what you have, or </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >what you do, that keeps you right with God, but knowing that all of that is nothing, and that </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >there is nothing between you and the abyss but the mercy of God.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br />Where you stand determines how you pray. So where are we? If we imagine </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >ourselves in the middle of the United States empire, in the prosperous heart of the world’s </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >most powerful nation, then we can count our blessings. But none of those blessings need </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >God. We can be righteous, and self-sufficient without God.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br />But if we imagine ourselves in … St. Paul’s Church, Brockton, far from the centers of </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >power, without anywhere near enough money to pay our tithes to anyone, to the diocese, to </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >the state, to the city, a forgotten outpost from which the empire has long ago drained all our </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >resources, well, then we get it: the blessings we have come from none of those places – not </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >from Boston, or Washington, or whatever remains of shoe-manufacturing headquarters.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br />In our lives we live in both places, just as the Pharisee and the tax collector were two </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >sides of the same person. Both wanted to get right with God, but if you faced inward – </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >toward rules, and security, and comfort – you would miss where God was standing, Jesus </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >said. Turn around, Jesus said. Move from there, where there are rules for righteousness, to </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >there, where nothing gets you anywhere, except being right with God.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">p.s. The illustration this week is by Simon Schmitt-Hall</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-76839925238145300862010-10-17T13:36:00.005-04:002010-10-17T14:20:14.067-04:00Pray always. Do not lose heart.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" 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"><img 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UEtobawvkj9Cov2g6pKkSVZAVlrCAqHFRMYFKkqGrhor/8A6QAWlqI6EWilGNOtykgDa0byx+m6OtDDEKWYvLkWElJe41i2lzEd8DNu0CS8YRoTqd7NBU3EJYbvpci1x7xRSTymSd1TOJ62MKqyapKi6e7sRHtVi8p/jT3S5v8AIwpq+KkHQKPgPrG7L6Cn8MZx87jlGDnIfaN3jqlVB+HKBz19oWDAiNr7QHyRE8bZlPwCjeJG0TgZbaJC+Y3gLMFeaWkmYEEuUnTrpyPyhzxPImypEpaJaz3gC+wY7DRzvs3WAeG56ZecozJCfiA0A9OUOcV4impQUoWiYFJVrqB+61j7aR1Mkg6hwsz5aVkmUSxXcgHTYFi/PpAuK8MT0zVVEqekKSAQhi2UM93ZVr6B4DoOJc8tJYZCSlwoC41sdObGJ/2mZIyFZYKSMxdLHRxuW5RNtLZWNvSGYTKydrOPM50CzmzvtCOswxP4lUyXOXM7QDuPpbc6AekWYfgar5phUDqNB/cGpoUhOSWAEnUiwHnzaOeX+Ql/1Lx4HLZm6qhK5wQj4v1nZI5X3htLpxLGVLPz3eD/AMDLQhpeu56831P9RTS0Jc5y56H5Ryyn22dMUoqkIMTwaab5XBhcnCJ6fhSzekfR6WlsQL9SYgw6W4K2UTZth5RvJWAU7syuHSJpDdpmLkMm1vHW/SNNh+EJCcyk/mAEj/FtCOe0SdkIAcJ+Fsti7qGvRh6xETlZyXJTprfx+X2Im85LOTapFlZiCZYzEZSzFOoBPLpv5wywyQFIC0ln2dwehF4T4pT9qCLAFiX5jaD8Im9kgJe2+/L1hbTYUn1/Q2vwQqSSiyhpyPNJe7HR9uojITuJEBRR2gzJLFJYKDNYjY6iN3+OSABnSCdjY/KBMRweRUXmy5UzqoJUR5m8PURVOS2Zqgx9Fhm1KkudO+gpBPJlW8zDGVxFJSRmUlPMFQBBCUpKSOTuxD2McT+AqY6SykNqhSk/y3KMzxVwrOlh5U1axoy7kJ2uwLQYxX0ZyTNkvi+mcALBUS1tPE8hDpdMVjZut/SPzz28yWp+UbHAP+SuzZMy4/y284s+NrOyNxeE6f6fQ10Ew5kqU6dmDC+2u0d0CACUmzBvHl99IUyP+TKdQuQIqm8f02uYA/OEcVeBv6rJrVJSHOsKMXxIJICSAd30A6xkcR4nrJi1JkSxlewJ73poPMx7Q8JTpnfqphJN8ifh8zqfYRpL6KlWwtGNrmqPZhxoVGwPgeXh6w+oZJIGbVvKKqHB0oDJAEM5SW12idAlL4VqpbQLOk5ejczDbK8CTpQ56e8ZxFUxTNVrd7QrngEFxDmok2N36e/0gGYoM5u/l4wqKi2XJBFgT8vWO1UWlmf+o4KlJUWs/wB+xvHgxDMkPawhzUdrpEl+m+jxSUJGnW8V1dURZ/veFU+sIf5QyQkkNzNH7vv0iRnzVKewt4RIp1ZPBzUYWaWepSZ4UmZ3jbMp3uCNBY+0GLxxKklAlBThipT6dADYdLwmloznkOUNaaQBt9mOqfL8OWPGc0uHJAfKAOkNZC0gNo3OBkDKP42i9U0MHjkk2zqj/I5oJgb4n0guTRsCCWB9z9/KM3Rku6bgQ5kTyXIu2x5b/OJNUUyymbPUVaa/x9mJh8k3U933HKGHaJYlOzeIOl/f1ilU5QUWYbuff3f1hWMmXy1LIYWjkISC619W9YHVf4p3/wAlotlU8gEKJCiHd7i7j+YUYrqcbko0u3LaBE4wpRJSlvG906fMDzEH5acv3Une0VLr5KVZcozn4ct7kMzddIKoybKJdYTdStbMQwLvbx5Q2w5LkFJLjcB/XqGhf2OcsUFKQHIGmbm/L7vB2HyEgAtMI6L8g4CmgtDW2O6qUFJZQfxG/paM5ilcmmIKiEoUdTo/Iv4W840aUytBmHIEn6xTPMouVpCmFyU5ve9o2LyCLaMvTcYpKbKHiDBEzidCk95VgAeYsxMFTsHoJgdUqXcqcpGQ2bcMXhHVcIyVf+HtA51zWAb/ACBfWDUR0/w6xDCZCyVkIyn9WcEP0AL3sRrrGYquDwT3TroNbfz/AFGpoeBUSgkrmqLqZgAkebB/eNXKwdEtIypAez84p3cdEZ9Wv6Pk0r/j+es90N1Uco+vtDvC/wDj9EplTlhZ/wAXAHm9/aNtNnpQQFaH78IqqZqNvvaM+WbwKuOKd0eUUtEtPdS337w5w8hdoxU7FkgkPlYOLtv/AFDPBsVysSTvb1vE9bKOFo106QEi3KF0xyY9l4ukjTWB5+KgfdoZtMhTRaicQ43jhaiziA5uIG7Pfzb6ae8LZ2LTAnzfyhLKKAwUSfB4Vzjt0bxhdMxJTkl73ufvrAs2oJHLpr8/GDTHqi+fUsNXIv5av98zAiJx56fbGF6qizfekQTjdiz/AH/MUURHMNnz3A+3+/4hetWpMdzVOLaRdT4PNmtlSW5/p8TFYRbIykA54kaWXwCW70wv0Ab5x7FfGyXdGcCShREGyZnvExFQzhWr6+IsfZj5wKqqGxic4u6GhJOKYXNm2O0WrmgBNtW+ULV1Ds8XLrybMLfbwlD3kd0aUuwseYhxJo1AuWI8GjKUU9QIVsPlG3wyvRMSANeR3iTK1iwGdhsoqcTCg6FlWI8D93gWfw8lf/sUWP7m2+sP59DIUCFgEG/hzjN1uAyQo9nOUnoFG3SMmA8p8FRmAcvcC+pEFqwCWSEkrSVFrGMlVImoVlROzA6HeCFY5VAAqUCR+rfz+sP1YHL1YbW8KKQWRMX5E2+7QB/1c2WSvMpZFj3SSx3BH28MqfiqoUHMoKbViz/SO08US3GeXMSSNWBDbeIjXL4ZJfSzCsXCVZZspRBGoDfy0PaJMtLqSmYAb/D8jv5GM2qvkrUSiYoPt9QY44h4k7KWESlm4Fgbdf8AUJ1t6OjSuzSYliyLDs1FXIqZXi2bTxaF9JQLK3K1AbAFrdXJhJwxPStGZazmOps/qfRukWYjjXZzBlW4L6kOPlB6PQVNVg2tNhstF2HMnWOJtSlBLaG8ZlHEBWghJUon9oJ35gM7EwIpNbMPdlpQn/NV+lk7+cChJfrNEK7tJ6Ek2SFHoTcfKOl16wmYArusLO7KJIs+l0g+sK6PhicpSVzajKQdEJCb+JeNBL4OkN3wqZv3lEhzqW09oAraWzLVfFEvRSgVWcJdRfwS/SFs3FqiZ/45Mxuahl+e30j6LLopKB3EIAHIN47RJqUC7bQbS9A7Nny4YTUzVd/u+P8AUafBqBeilu20Maqolggv18tfvwhajFEpU6VAg2bzguTkNGJpzhxCAQbQrmyS7nTQ+cXDHWFj4eO0Lp9ctR1fwFvMwlGqthGdgXNj6NANTNKhbu2/1FE6YzPc3e3239wtJUtWVLknlDRhYHKixYCSXP1+/rAFTNJtp4bw1XgNT+iWFeY9AN4K4Zwbt5hzyynIWUDsRraOiPG/ZKXIZ2XRLIDJN/dtW56wywLhyZULyuEi5L7eXONFxDg07tkrkLl5UpbsyMpG5L6X/iGnC5WEFcxgpQZ7b7P4mLdESc8CHCTR5piUrCzLJAWbu1rA21O3KNLhsookZjdIc2FyBfbW20eT8HlLGQykpCgr4QAUqG7hi3jyjnDqjspeVZbKWLebG2xh0qJt2jMSeK0LAUQUk3ykXHQxIMqp0xSyexSpzrk1j2GNZn8eljulI8uo/qE34bf2aBKPFFG6iTBNXiw2ET5Yu7I8Eko0y9MgGPRTAK10hLMxJXOK1VCjuTE1xSLPnih7+ICXGbeCKfiJErRXl/qM0VR6Li8N4F7F/wCS/SNLW8Z5gweEE/GStVioGA5iuW+8do0choK44oL5JMuRVHnBEvEjz94AKfKOkSve0ZxRotmhw3HshsQ0EVHEEs/GnU66ff8AcPOD8Bl5Q6Q+ukU8f9mhCEADMouLbD7Ec6pvB2yh1WTI1FfLzOgn0NoGSsz1sB5t/EazhbhkTGKg+eBMe4aNCszAruEsDuDy6w6ktIVwaWWByMOkosVrfldI9LRo8JoKVh3Eknnc+pjL1VaFgA5idvt4rTiXZFr31gOEmZTijeDE5aAwaKF48CLRjJlcpaswDvu/0aKJ+IKSQO76H6wvhM+RGvGOKWphqk5gOohvK4mWU2G432NiPn6CPmqMQmZrMDzCY7XjK/hJsdWdL+LRvCbyr2bao4kyl1rA+fpqbwrreL3SDL7zva6W1F+b3tGdlEKPdSTv5wVUFCbZAhy7EktZiAOpvBXEkK5ybxo4nYjOXuEjw+sUo7R/iPi39Qww+gVOLJUw5gQxncIT0ucipiE3JCjm8kxRL4K/1kwBSicyiVH/ACcsPlDwrUtQSgfEWGwi7hPBJUxQUEkJGoVd/GG3FVFPRMlzJMtKpSAxCPjzHduTAQvivLHfJnqhUjhgqDlWYh8yRbTYGCcJwn8P3270xylJvpsOu8OMJq+3SM8pSW1ext0jzG8D7dQnS5ykLQkiWkfBmd+8NyWaLKKWiLk26YRJKD3UukkBWlwX/mB6gJkT3cfm5iXsXDOR6iOuH1rWnNOLr3OgfQgQr4pwMTpomy5ykLlpKSDdIAuw5F9Yb0LWaKaNH4ipmOMrtpcWd1Dm9vSB1cVSk1Cpd+ySwdrZ02U27W+cMcCT2MrMpRzlnUb66dQ7iDKuSiYlKFy0qDssAMzgsoPzbUQEZtWc4ZUiaVTEuQpmBLhh01FtozVTjM+TNV20pgtRCG7ycg7qfEs0PMOkop0qlu4SHL8ju/PeFdZLmLVqFy1KsLOlDgOR06awyFxZcaVau8leVJuBm0HKJF344JdIUCEkjR9CzPuzN5R5DUJ2Z8dlqbTeLAsqIgRAUFaawRMkqSHAMVycR3PpXFrERbT0pyufCOqRfaMn3i1FYnMRo23P+4BregOdSqQoEHXXwiydLtrdoYmUlSSWY2d7NC6ZOzB2++kI0Vg7KJEsmxFucXTKcqIAjrtcrA7+0GIlZizHxG0LRZMApZcwryqg6dRsXB02i8TEy1pzb26tzPnDBdAVFKWfN8KhsI1DJ0OOGeIAkAF7D2hRj0v8RO7UuC7JBOjXAbr/ADHK6mXImCVMJybqZ+9tDeho+2LlikMU294lHjUS8uaU9hfCmNJSyV2I5wBx7XJqlCWlVpV/FR+bC3mYFn4nLlzloUCkMwJtfcwdR4P2wzkOE3Q3xK+sLHjUXY0+XshRg2AqyuovyeDJvC6VhspzF33YjrBNBinZrKKmWuUhRPZuC3rGuwfD7FV1JWPMekVJGKwjhwJQ6rF28D1gHEOGgtZL5T8zs0aKfVpVOmS15pTKDPZwOYPONHS4eSl1JSpKQ6QNSYAXgxtBwoJaO/8AEq2jt4xcjg4KWElAP7jBEvGpkmco1ElWVZ0IYdGeNjgFIGK2+L9LvGWQu0jL4TwoiQ+ZiAWPTzjmt4eRM+OXmGiFJ+ZOsGSsdKKiYiejIFqsk3tGnwilQCpQPdOgO3hyjGdrYopcFTTpEuWl2bPzAO8P6IoUQlJunXwPjGfxmlq5Uxc6WoKCmCk8k6CzbQ7wJKgjNMuptRy5QVsDWLs6pqdMtSgEgKLqYHUbW6wHVZlrPZLKV65VXCQ1/CF+KYaRP/ESJxWS3aBSn7o0y+HKHlLOGuqzsdWGsYGsgUqvlomiR2iQtSM2two/WCAM0wOAAGII0JuD/qFuPcHSZxVNSVpmFlPmd9mvp5coPpR2UoM5IDtYnL05xjOqwLvx4MyfLlLBUjKP8QsgKt4R7Il9vM/MlkFKe8XseWloU4vh8lZTNp1dmpRGZKf/AGEnbkYdSFhEsIQrKtehLl+b+hEYLpIylVxEVVazkIktkb9zApzNpd7Dwh/gjTB2oGUkhg9gAGdvvWCK6mTN/LXLGVSC5tYhtNwQTFMmciVKKTdAVkO4c8j4iCK3aozVXitRIqlmZLI7RRyB+7kHdSA1jYA+Jh9ST0pQqYUtmYFg4Db+u0LaymmzJuQqSqU4dT3SnoP0m3OOcNxDtEqKFj8olJc92YLpB6bQyQrfoS1WCViFqErOqW5KVOm+bvOdLuTEjR00xRSCpNzc94/WJDUT7o+WSA4J5XEdTKt7jz++cDUkwAX+ceSZHeYXGsVOMPw5WS4a5+3g3FaZC8zIyqDKsG8Q+4gGZQLDTEkEH9PzHjBGGVGZJdnNi52gG/UWLWAm4cNcNeAKSjClkpNuXKOXUFlCku5LEbPygr8BMA/L1Gt2LHSEZ0Iv/DIUC6XbQi9t4uw7D+ymFj3FaHpFVPMC5iU5FSyLKvbxAhjxBSLTLQqXlUlGrfFyuPDlAoY6xOmlKR+Yi+y06dA/1hhgNGJUoKStwed2P8RRgdL2iQpboQLlJLg+Ec19NUUkwzgETJTMQNknRx/MBjIeVKRMJlqQMq0kHQpChoRuIowFKZEtQJZSSwvz0gnBsNSpGdCgAoPlOlxcdIz9Sqol1akKAWFNZOgTs0KN+BdZNTVTEdqlikkFQ+Fo0NKEZky0KCFJDj9pbRv6hdOwF6QolqSFu5dxrAkidPlLl01RLS1sq03t+4GANZo8Wo1zAcwGXukEF7vcgHQw0kYilElwzgFiLORsREnJndioSyhawnuAlnO0Y3C+ISQqmqUKEzm1wdzzTACsjKZVy6ieiZMSzJYk6AvqD4xpJFSl8pOVKQCFbHmeRhbiOCLXSCVKIzgNctrzLPC7B8SnS1po6iSNPiFwU820N42ht6NTVSBOSvNlIABDjldy8eprkslHwkpdJb5xXW0iuxWmQoBZFgRdtwH3jN4BiypryFyiTLYKKrMfmPKMBLFjGsXMM1OdCVFJJz2NmuOhbaHSaoEJygmWoWUL36wJiWEZ5BkylZVE3Lmz+5jOSZVXSTUye0SZK/1bWZxzB+sbQUkzX0s4TMzZtG5Pdt7xz/2LIWpLKyKItqwsfHSLlhCknMSgqDODo/LrGLpqCokzlSkr/KPeCh3nG7DXxjAST9jLD8LSqYJ6VKTK2QSycz3LbBtopTicuYpU2XMT+Wooyq3Rpbe5jQJSkS0yyjOlQIU2lx63jNVXDUkLTNkJslTEOcp5Ebi9oFDJp5ZoKKsVLlrmTiEoSnMwuwZ26nT1hQjEFLlS5ktbFLnKos4V16Q4NaUyC6SqwdGrpNvMfSMjKkS0z80lBZmW5dKSpXdAB+EbQWBNbHMuSESTUKkArB7qZYve1vHV4zMjG1IKpdRKUFKOZIuCgkkhgdr7Rr5WLJUrJdGQd4EWY/PxgLEZHbSklYSVJWogg95gWYK1Zr+kagdvoRSZwFKT+anK4S4fNbu3v6xj6TG50qatEyW5WslSTbU3sbND7/sElOVKylWUKCiHy62VfdrHqIVzqmYlBmTigy0JUpK31Oibm4ufOGSFug6cmXkMkgoNS76aftHiIzs7h1MkoVJWcpUxB+JKh7EQ5nYwFSgrKCFskJcOCwJIDEC7/wDz1hZjc9FPTMtTqUrugBu8Tr0AD+0OkI2HTtf/ACEafpfpsY8jPKrSq6ZhCdgbnkdOsSGtA6sxkxV32i6VUEBxEiQTkGFLiOY303iqdPAUUp01/qJEhvRkqZ5KrCkudBaGtJiCQxW7r1Is4+sSJCFTutqBJnIUFE5rFWhtZ/lFdVXLWsh2KmFtD9IkSMxkNKHHbZGdKQy7a9RDylqxOl5QolhlWFDXk3lEiQA6AZGM9khUtgUglJfbkQYU01VkXnJJQ9j+r7EexIDQyHtdiqkNm+IsykjVJ1Bv5xbPxYpVKMzvJQHzaEbH+IkSBRhhMxszJgEpVwzKNgQRoR/IgAYgpU4zZiU/l919f7aJEjUGw2gx9K5xLlL6gXDbMIY4iHRKnk5lSy3IlJP+okSFob2B41jMztkgEJKA4J/UDoLfzFFJxEpKjMWAnMWDXLgWfmIkSAPWh7R4uhScyu6pVrP/AKs8TEJ2WRmbMEquT4gHxeJEgoADU4qjKZU1JSlRdDG/OxBsxexgETlUsqZNmLJUyCiz21ALW3vHkSAPWkF09epYEySsHtGUUqBDEM+U6esF4xiolUyifiPdAAtmJt5AAnyiRI3oyVsDmVomISqWtpiAwsSG89CX1inieeqTSAAjtJwYlnfdRJ8C3nEiRvQyWUhTJxz8QAgpCVhIBUNyCGYtbeHuNVkynkMBchkl3uRdR+kSJBjoSaoQYXionflzEAtZ/wCRDDFJcmegJUVpQg5SE7E2cuC/h1iRIZCSFMnDEy54SqY/ZgZSE6p5HqPpHWKzJU1RlzkEkaMdn15RIkOkSbsCOHSxou2zpc+bRIkSDSD2Z//Z" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;">Proper 24/C October 17, 2010<br />Jeremiah 31:27-34<br />Ps. 119: 97-104<br />2 Timothy 3:14-4:5<br />Luke 18:1-8<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">We’ve been with Jeremiah a long time, now, hearing him tell us how God is plucking, up, breaking down, overthrowing, destroying – and even bringing evil (how can God bring evil?. The people of Israel have been in a tough place with God, and even the moments where Jeremiah have brought them a word of hope have been difficult. Last week we heard about how God wanted them to put down roots in Babylon, and to care for even that place of their hated captivity. By the waters of Babylon, where we sat down and wept? </span></span></span><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">We who know something about dislocation can appreciate Jeremiah: we who have lived in houses that have been foreclosed, forced to move when we didn’t want to – we who left our families and loved ones far behind and far away – we who long to be home, where home is someplace other than here?</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />In times like this, what does Jesus tell us? To pray always, and not to lose heart.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />For a few years I was a Chaplain in a nursing home. A lay pastoral care giver worked with me, and she was a fervent, evangelical, pentecostal and born-again pray-er. She believed that if she laid hands on someone, the Holy Spirit would heal them. Like the persistent widow, she believed that if she asked God for something -- in her case, to heal someone -- God would act as instructed.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />That did not always work so well at Castle Rest. Those disturbed by Alzheimer's continued to roam the halls, restless and inappropriate. Those succumbing to cancer continued to decline. People continued to be angry that they had to live there, or were poor, or that the staff did not attend to their needs on time. And every week our recreation therapist gave us a list of residents who had not survived the week. I think my friend prayed always, but I think she did lose heart, sometimes.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />Prayer as a list of things God is supposed to do for us does make me uncomfortable. We know all too well – and reading Jeremiah these past weeks confirms it – that God’s plans for us don’t always coincide with our idea of a happy life. Yet I do think prayer has something to do with our passionate desire to return that which we perceive as out of whack to a state of blessed equilibrium. I may make light of my friend's fervent prayers, but she knew that those suffering from pain or confusion were not living the lives God<br />created them to live. She knew God heard their -- and her -- daily and nightly cries, and that surely God felt their pain, too. "Will God delay long in helping them?" When Jesus said that, he was filled with confidence; when we say that, we are more likely filled with anxiety and uncertainty.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">Prayer, Jesus says in this parable, is about justice. God will quickly grant justice to those deserving it. "... yet," to quote an old hymn, "saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, 'How long?'" What is taking God so long?</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />To get a different reading here, let us turn this parable around. Picture the widow not as the downtrodden of humanity, but -- as God. We are the unjust judges, to whom God, as the ceaselessly begging widow, asks for her own just deserts. If we will act justly for no other reason, perhaps we will act justly just to get God off our backs.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">This reading is not so different from the way the prophet Jeremiah has been portraying God. For example, in today's reading, he speaks of the old covenant with Moses, made when God brought the people out of Egypt. God's love was like that of a husband for a wife, Jeremiah says, and yet the faithless people broke the covenant anyway. God doesn't want any more rules like that, Jeremiah says. God wants us to love God and our neighbors from our hearts, from the deepest essence of who we are, from that place in ourselves where we most clearly reflect the image of God.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">God, like the faithful husband, or the really annoying widow, never gives up. God wants justice, and God wants us to act justly, on behalf of "his chosen ones who cry to him day and night." That is prayer: persistence and patience, in the cause of justice.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br />And with whom does God stand in the cause of justice? This is the cast of characters in every story in the gospel: God stands with the least, the last, the lost, and the littlest. God stands with us when we are at our weakest. For it is in the welfare of the least among us, in the shalom of the people we least expect, in the justice for those who are strangers to us, that we will find the answer to all our prayers.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">Jesus said, Pray always, and do not lose heart. For what do you pray today? </span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">For what justice in your life, or in the world, do you need to hear Jesus say again to you, do not lose heart?</span><br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-41011670402381885012010-10-09T09:46:00.016-04:002010-10-09T17:10:01.632-04:00Taking our mustard seeds with us<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" 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"><img 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" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 0);">Proper 22 C October 3, 2010</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);" class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Lamentations 1:1-6; Psalm 137<br />2 Timothy 1:1-14 ; Luke 17:5-10</b></span></span><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">We all know some smug Christians. You know, those, “I have faith – and it’s a heck of a lot bigger than a mustard seed!” They imply to us, “What’s wrong with you?” They love passages like this one from the Gospel of Luke, this extolling of a muscular and over-the-top discipleship. </span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Doesn’t it just wear you out sometimes? Especially at those times when things are not going as you hoped, or expected? Is the opposite of faith, as these folks define it, really doubt, or weakness? Or is the opposite of faith certainty? Think of using this line, when you meet someone who seems to have it spiritually all together:Certainty is the belief that I’m smarter today than I will be tomorrow.</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Oh, is it really? Are you really so sure that nothing new will come your way, that you will learn nothing, be in no way tested by the course of events, find no new and startling joy or unexpected delight that will turn your world upside down? Is there really nothing left to learn?</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">The people of Israel, dragged into a hated exile in Babylon certainly did not feel certainty – unless it was certainty that they were miserable. Sitting by those strange waters in a place that looked nothing like home, they started to look inward. Shaken to the core, they would rage at their enemies – even to the point of wanting to kill their enemies’ children, because, after all, where was this God who said would always be with them? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">This God who led them to the Promised Land – only to take them out of it again? Sitting by those strange waters, the people of Israel began to re-think what it meant to be the people of God, began to see that it had less to do with that place Jerusalem – that external, objective reality – and that it had more to do with that place in their hearts. The people of God began to realize they were not defined by something out there, some set of buildings or a set of religious rituals; the people of God began to realize that being the people of God started here, in the heart of each person. God’s promises of compassion and mercy were not somewhere out there, but here, in the heart of each of us. And because they were here, in the heart of each of us, they were no longer exclusive to “our kind of people” or “our place” or even “our temple.” Thrown into exile, the people of Israel began to think about themselves, and to pray to God, in a new way.</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Paul must have written this letter when his friend, Timothy, was experiencing some kind of despair. Paul seems to be needing to encourage him, prop him up. Listen to this again:</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><i>Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.</i></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><i><br /></i></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><i>For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.</i></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span><span><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span><span><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span><span><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span><span><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span><span><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><a href="http://themustardseedbookstore.com/images/MustardSeed_LOGO300px.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 174px; height: 168px;" src="http://themustardseedbookstore.com/images/MustardSeed_LOGO300px.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">As we start to think about what it will mean to worship God in another building, perhaps with another </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">community of faith, let’s think about who in this community play the role of Lois or Eunice in our lives. Who are the leaders who instilled in us a sense of God, a sense of community, a sense of hope? Who do we think of, when we need to be reminded of the great continuity of our mothers and fathers in the faith? Whose faith, which we first encountered here, in this place, now lives in us?</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);" class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">And as we do that, keep in mind that what appears to be as small as a mustard seed to some, is, to those of us who have eyes to see, as big and powerful and long-lasting as the mightiest of trees.</span></span><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:'Trebuchet';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;color:transparent;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></span></span></p></div></div></span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-44405889217330167862010-10-04T08:55:00.006-04:002010-10-05T08:15:27.684-04:00God invests in us<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:aUrgDlrkz8odaM:b"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 81px; height: 108px;" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:aUrgDlrkz8odaM:b" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><h1 id="internal-source-marker_0.533086322946474"><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;color:transparent;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></h1><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Proper 21-C September 26, 2010</b></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; </b></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>1 Timothy 6:6-19 ; Luke 16:19-31</b></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Today’s lessons would, on the surface, to seem to have nothing to do with us.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">The prophet Jeremiah, whom we have been reading for some weeks – Jeremiah, the prophet who is speaking for God, telling the people of Israel why they are about to be invaded, their temple destroyed and their families moved into exile – Jeremiah now is talking about buying land – in Jerusalem! As the invaders approach! As the Temple is destroyed! In the face of the end of life as they knew it, Jeremiah buys property. Jeremiah invests in the future – in a land that will not belong to the people of Israel for a very long time. Jeremiah buys a stake in the future – a very far off future, to be sure, but a stake nonetheless. Jeremiah buys a stake in God’s future: the people of Israel will be restored to their home. Not now, perhaps, but some day.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">The reading from Timothy, and the gospel parable from Luke, are admonitions against the rich: the merciless, wealthy man is sent to Hades, to suffer torment, because he did not share his abundance with the poor man, Lazarus, who after death rests with the blessed Abraham in heaven. In the words of a parable, “a great chasm has been fixed” between the poor and the wealthy, and it is clear what side of that chasm God wants us to be on. Timothy, too, hammers the point home: if we are trapped by our desire for riches, riches and more riches there will be no room in our lives for God. What does Timothy tell us to do?</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">… to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for [our]selves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [we] may take hold of the life that really is life.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Why do these lessons seem to have little to do with us? We have just heard the news that our church will close – because we aren’t wealthy enough to keep it going. So, we know the opposite side of these lessons first hand: we are about to go into exile ourselves, like the people of Israel; and we know all too well the life of Lazarus. We know of that “great chasm” between the wealthy and the poor, and we know what side of that chasm we are on.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">There are plenty of religious groups who base their faith on optimism. Everything is getting better and better all the time. For some of these people, life is always Easter. You get richer? It’s a sign of God’s blessings. You get poorer? Well, you’d just better work harder and see what God can do for you. I wonder, sometimes, when the tsunami of life hits people in those churches, what they would do? If God is always about sunshine, can they see God in the shadows? If God is always about growth and increase and building, can they see God when things are falling down around them? </span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Like Jeremiah, I KNOW that God is in a place like St. Paul’s Church. I KNOW that God stands with a family whose house is being foreclosed and taken away from them. I KNOW that God eats lunch at the Table. Like Jeremiah, I KNOW that God invests in the future and that God is with us, here and wherever we go, for the long haul.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">St. Paul’s has been a church of remarkable generosity. </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">St. Paul’s has been a church of sincere good works. St. Paul’s has been a church always ready to share.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Like Jeremiah buying that plot of land, God has invested in you. You are the deed that will last a long time, and in your very selves you embody the promise that God will always be here.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Picture Jeremiah, standing in a field which is surrounded by land no longer owned by the people of Israel. He has staked out this little plot in a world now taken over by strangers. In the midst of something that should seem desolate, Jeremiah – and God – have grabbed hold. They have faith, so why shouldn’t we, that even when so much changes here, when other people are in charge, that this very ground on which we stand belongs now and always to God. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">We have been entrusted with this plot of land for some time, and now it may pass to someone else. We have been entrusted with a piece of God’s mission for some time, as well, and have faithfully fulfilled that mission with grace, generosity and compassion. We have welcomed the stranger and fed the hungry. God has invested in us, and we, who have been shaped by the work of this place will carry that mission with us wherever we go.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;color:transparent;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-350203975519191152010-10-03T21:41:00.033-04:002010-10-05T08:17:37.028-04:00Is there no balm in Gilead?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.jewishfolksongs.com/userfiles/Fiddler-on-the-roof%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.jewishfolksongs.com/userfiles/Fiddler-on-the-roof%5B1%5D.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Proper 20 C September 19, 2010</span><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:'Trebuchet';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:15px;" ><b><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9 </span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13</span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">In the Broadway musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” the people of the little Jewish village in Russia pray, “God bless and keep the Czar … far away from us!”That very same sentiment is found in our second reading, from Timothy: pray for those kings, rulers, magistrates, police officers, immigration agents, and even bishops (!) – “all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” – far away from us!</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">As much as we might want that, especially in church, especially in a place we hold sacred, and on Sunday morning – a time we hold sacred – as much as we might yearn for that quiet and peaceable life, the Word of God is not the thing that will bring it to us. More often than not, the Word of God de-stabilizes us, upsets us, dismantles our expectations, forces us to change our course, give up the things we thought we so important. Let us hope there is some balm in Gilead – a far-off place – because there is nothing here, Jeremiah says. No comfort left in Jerusalem, where the people have gotten so focused on their worship in the temple, that they have not noticed that God is no longer there.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">This passage from Jeremiah is a tough one to hear, because it just seems so hopeless. Isn’t God supposed to help us? To give us pleasant words to comfort and uphold us, especially on Sunday mornings?</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">A little context about the passage: the people of Israel center their worship of God in the Temple in Jerusalem. They say prayers and perform liturgies that have been passed down to them for generations. They expect that when they pray, “God help us,” God will show up. After all, they use the right words, wear the right clothes, make the right sacrifices. On top of that, they are used to God’s good graces showing up on schedule; it’s the end of summer – where’s the harvest? The sure sign of God’s blessings?</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">But things are not going so well for the people of Israel. Their temple is about to be destroyed, taken over by foreigners, and they are to be sent away, into exile, in some far-off place. They cannot imagine why this is happening to them. That is where Jeremiah comes in.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Jeremiah speaks for God. He speaks words of anger, grief, love, longing – Jeremiah speaks the great pathos of God. More than anything else, God wants these people he has created to be in relationship with him. And God’s heart is just broken when they continue to turn away. God wants them. God doesn’t want them just to go into the temple and perform rituals. God wants faithfulness. God wants that old relationship he set up with the people at the beginning. God wants the world to be a loving place. God wants the poor to be taken care of, the strangers welcomed, the neighborhoods safe. God knows there is enough of everything to go around – it IS God’s creation after all, so share it! God doesn’t really care that much about the temple, and all its fancy stuff. It just gets in the way. God wants them. The people. His people. God wants us.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">God is heartsick that the people aren’t getting it, and he is heart-sick that they are suffering. There is no help for their dis-ease there in Jerusalem, in the temple, in the establishment. Maybe in Gilead, maybe far away. But not here.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">That is what that passage is about. We’re reading these bits from Jeremiah this fall, and eventually we’ll get to the end, eventually we’ll get to see how Jeremiah helps the people of Israel put their lives and their faith back together after they have been shattered and destroyed and told they have to leave their home. Eventually, but not today.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish religion. It is the Day of Atonement, coming some days after the celebration of the New Year. During those days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Jews think and pray and remember how they have not been right with God, or right with their neighbors. On Yom Kippur they read the difficult biblical stories of judgment, like the story of Jonah, who had to sit in the belly of a whale before he could begin to understand what God wanted him to do.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">On Yom Kippur, Jews also remember the exile, that defining event that Jeremiah wrote about. That experience of always being far from home, of yearning for comfort and security, of depending on the kindness of strangers, of not being able to walk on one’s own streets or to plant one’s own garden – that experience of exile and displacement is part of how the Jews understand who they are. But even in exile – and this is the core message of Jeremiah – God was with them. A modern writer put it this way:</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">It is said that when the Jews went into exile, the Shekinah, the divine presence, went into exile, too – hovering over us, around us wherever we were, waiting for us to invite the sacred into our lives.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">[i]</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">There is nothing more that God wants than that. God wants us. God wants this world that God has created to shine once again with God’s glory and abundance. The temple in Jersualem did it for a while, but then it didn’t. It stopped being the place where God met the people. It actually started to get in the way between God and the people. It was great for a while, but then its purpose came to an end. It had to go, and the people had to move away. They left their shell of a building behind, and maybe they didn’t understand this at the time, God went with them, too, and waited there, ever patient, ever welcoming, with arms stretched wide.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-size:15px;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span">[i] Sam Kestenbaum. “Yom Kippur at Sea” (New York Times, September 18, 2010, p. A19)</span></span></span></span><div style=""><div style="" id="edn1"><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></p></div></div></span></span></div></b></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-24114277380407464432010-09-05T15:17:00.009-04:002010-09-05T16:03:41.017-04:00Jeremiah to us: God is calling, and wants you back.<h1 style="font-weight: bold; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);" id="internal-source-marker_0.27020679385375657"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Proper 18 C Sept. 5, 2010<br />Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139: 1-5, 12-17<br />Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33</span></h1> <p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I am the potter; you are the clay.”</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0UX6ZUvI/AAAAAAAABPc/-X0Socp31qI/s1600/PottersHands.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0UX6ZUvI/AAAAAAAABPc/-X0Socp31qI/s200/PottersHands.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513518999685124850" border="0" /></a></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like a lot of the religious clichés we hear, that can be heard in a kind of “happy-clappy” way. We are nothing; we give up all autonomy to God’s all-powerful hand. </span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, God IS all-powerful, and compared to God, we ARE but clay in the potter’s hand, but if we look more closely at two of our texts today – the one from Jeremiah and the one from the Gospel of Luke – I think we will also see that God does not want us just to give up and be nothing but some wet mud. God expects us to act and to live a certain way.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In our first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is struggling with how to interpret current events to the people of Israel. Their “current events” are quite gloomy – they have been invaded by the Babylonians, their temple destroyed, and they and their leaders carried off into exile. Everything they had built – all their glorious past and their plans for an even more glorious future – have been wrecked. They indeed are nothing more than clay smashed by the potter – they are an inadequate and imperfect first attempt at something the potter does not even want to keep on the discard shelf. </span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This potter has expectations of the clay: if it starts to repent and act in the way God wants, well </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there is a chance for it. If it chooses life, then it has a chance; if it chooses evil, then it will be smashed.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And in the Gospel – well, once again we read of a harsh and serious Jesus. This is Jesus the construction engineer, Jesus the military strategist. Jesus has great expectations of those of us who call ourselves disciples. We must cast aside everything in our lives that does not concern this task of building. We must be careful planners, and if our foundation is not secure, well, then we must be ruthless destroyers. We must take our clue from Jeremiah’s potter: smash the imperfect clay vessel if it cannot stand up to the expectations of the potter. We must wage only the war that we can win; if not, negotiate the best peace terms we can get.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What kind of good news is this, either from Jeremiah or Jesus? These are tough lessons. But if we look behind them, behind the high expectations that God seems to be laying out here, we find God who reaches out to us in love, and yearns for us to reach back. We find the God of creation, who has shown us mercy and compassion, the God who took us by the hand and loved us as a parent loves a child. This God yearns for us to act like that, too, to love God back but also to love our neighbors with that same compassion and mercy. If we were the clay, that is the shape the potter wishes us to tak</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">e: a vessel large enough to hold all the bits of this broken and hurting world.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0UDFpHbI/AAAAAAAABPU/3dw95PZh0QQ/s1600/hands-clay.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0UDFpHbI/AAAAAAAABPU/3dw95PZh0QQ/s200/hands-clay.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513518994095152562" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The prophet Jeremiah can talk a lot about destruction, about what we are not – about how we do not measure up to God’s expectations for us. But Jeremiah also talks about building and planting – even as the old established order is being smashed, he is beginning to imagine the new thing that God wants to bring into being. But Jeremiah is a prophet, not a predictor. Neither he, nor we, know what will replace the things around us that are coming to an end. We can only know that we are in God’s good and gracious hands.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What a contrast our psalm today poses to both Jeremiah and the gospel. The psalm tells of God the potter of the human form, the human form God loves and has created in the image of God’s own self. Having been shown such love and care in our creation, can we not understand how much God wants from us, to show this very same love and care to all around us as well?</span></p><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-weight: bold;">Proper 17 C August 29, 2010 St. Paul’s Jeremiah 2:4-13</span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Psalm 81:1, 10-16 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14</span><br /><br /></span><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >When the people of Israel trudged out of Egypt all those many thousands of years ago, God</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP1wwgTivI/AAAAAAAABPk/wqvNpQNmkMw/s1600/DSC01529.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP1wwgTivI/AAAAAAAABPk/wqvNpQNmkMw/s200/DSC01529.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513520586834545394" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" > expected something of them. Yes, God was generous, yes, God was gracious, yes, God provided, yes, God led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, but really, this was not a free ride. God expected something of them.</span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>The prophet Jeremiah is trying to explain to the people of Israel, now happily ensconced in privilege and luxury in the Promised Land, that God expected something from them when God led them out of Egypt and brought them to this place that they now call home. Jeremiah is trying to explai</span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >n to them that God is not so happy with them now. Jeremiah is God’s mouthpiece, calling these people back to their first principles, to the events that shaped and formed them as the people of God.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >This call to repentance and return would be fairly easy if the people of God were a collection of individuals. Stories of individuals who repent and return to the Lord are very popular – always have been. There was a tv show in recent years called My Name is Earl. Earl, kind of a ne’er-do-well, finds he has a winning lottery ticket, but at the same time he finds the ticket, he gets hit by a car, and has the revelation that this is a sign – that he should now spend his time doing good things, that his life was spared for this purpose. He turns his life around. Now, this is a comedy, not an inspirational show, so all of Earl’s attempts to do good things are played for laughs. But the theme of an individual who can turn his life around, can return to his origins as a good and generous person, does strike a powerful chord in our hearts.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >Think also of the beloved holiday tale, A Christmas Carol, where miserly Scrooge – himself the very definition of greed and selfishness – gets hit over the head with the consequences of his miserliness. He wakes from nightmares on Christmas morning, a new person, determined to be generous to the people he knows who are in need.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >The problem with these wonderful tales of individual repentance and change in direction are just that: they are individual. And of course, I suppose, we must all start somewhere, and the place we start is right here. I bet the people of Israel, whom Jeremiah is very busy scolding, -- I bet each individual among the people of Israel thought they were being good people, living good lives. They had really gotten into their good and prosperous life. Jeremiah accuses </span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >them of Ba’al worship – not worshipping God alone – which might be kind of like the search for good karma that Earl embarks on – kind of, I’ll do some good things, and some more good things will come my way.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >But I don’t think that is quite what God had in mind. God called the WHOLE people of Israel out of Egypt – and as God called them, they BECAME a people. God wants a relationship with those people, not with a collection of individuals, but with all those people. If God was generous to them, God wants them – all of them, as a PEOPLE – to be generous with others. Thousands of years later, Jesus is preaching the same message: Friends, set the table and invite everyone in, and let least among you get the best seats. When Jesus delivered that little sermon on hospitality to his friends, in the back of their minds was the story of the deliverance from Egypt. “When I took you by the hand and brought you out of the land of</span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" > Egypt,” they hear God say, in the back of their minds. One of the first obligations of this deliverance is to show generosity and hospitality to others – to show it to others as God showed it to them. </span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0TAVG6JI/AAAAAAAABPE/B-9bf7KFe6s/s1600/baptism+-+mosaic+-+small.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 101px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TIP0TAVG6JI/AAAAAAAABPE/B-9bf7KFe6s/s200/baptism+-+mosaic+-+small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513518976174844050" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >Today we baptize Aaliyah Naila. We make her a member of the household of God. She becomes one of God’s people – an inheritor of the deliverance from Egypt – and of the obligation to give to others the generosity and hospitality God showed to all God’s people. </span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >And so baptisms are not private, individual things – they are public, group events. We are people-making here. We are adding to our collective. We are enlarging what it means to be the people of God.</span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 255); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-size:100%;" >And so to you, her family and friends, we join in this process of welcoming this little girl into something much bigger than a collection of individuals. I said this at the baptism we had a few weeks ago, and I will say it again. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes more than a mom and a dad, thinking they have to go it alone. It takes family and friends and neighbors and teachers and doctors and nurses and a faith community – it takes not just individuals, but the whole people of God to show generosity and hospitality and love to this little person, so she can grow up to be the kind of person who can show generosity and hospitality and love to others. </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-90728786163786243262010-08-22T15:06:00.003-04:002010-08-22T15:23:18.656-04:00Jeremiah and the Long Haul<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTaEtdY_loIen1g2h9Ea4MU37_JZneSewYkaMYgUI96rhk2DJA&t=1&usg=__sM6Lq8MnZ11KCmE6PBIAtubbgDU="><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 273px; height: 185px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTaEtdY_loIen1g2h9Ea4MU37_JZneSewYkaMYgUI96rhk2DJA&t=1&usg=__sM6Lq8MnZ11KCmE6PBIAtubbgDU=" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><h6 id="internal-source-marker_0.7200062936171889"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Proper 16 C </span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">August 22, 2010<br />Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6 </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17</span></h6><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">We live in a youth culture, don’t we? A culture of instant gratification. A culture of let’s have it now or it’s not worth having. It’s all about the celebrity of the moment. How about that Jet Blue flight attendant who proclaimed that he’d had enough and he wasn’t going to take it anymore, before he grabbed two beers from the airplane galley and headed down the emergency landing chute? Instant celebrity – last week. This week, I haven’t heard anything about him. We live in a culture of NOW.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">So when we read this passage from Jeremiah, about God calling him to be a prophet, we read it as, this must be happening to this young boy, now. This is the story of a young person’s call, about a young person’s life – a life blessed by this close relationship with God.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">We are embarking on several weeks of reading passages from the Book of Jeremiah, and we will soon see that this book is not just about blessings of the young prophet’s life. It is a long, troubling book of prophecy, some of it angry, some of it full of the disappointments Jeremiah felt when his 40 years of preaching the Word of God seemed to fall on deaf ears – except when the people to whom he was sent to preach abused him and scorned what he was saying. The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, we shall see, is not the book of a young whippersnapper, but the account of “a seasoned prophet,” a “mature, battle-scarred veteran looking back over a long and tortuous journey.”</span></span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">[1]</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> Over the next few weeks, we “people of a certain age” can read this prophet, and perhaps read some of our own life experience in his words.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Jeremiah lived in the midst of the greatest crisis faced by the people of Israel – the crisis which has defined who they would become as God’s people. Their kingdom in Judah was caught between Egypt and Babylon, the superpowers of their day, and Babylon won. Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people of Israel were marched off into captivity in Babylon. Everything they had worked, hoped, dreamed for, was shattered. Their very identity as the people of God was apparently gone. They were done for – now mere stateless slaves, weeping for their past in a foreign land. Why, why, why, did this happen to them? Did the glories of their past, and how much God loved them, then count for nothing? Where was God now?</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">In the midst of this horrible crisis of death, destruction and displacement, two great prophets arise: Isaiah and Jeremiah. They speak for God, and begin to tell the people of Israel how to make sense of this terrible calamity. Unfortunately, the people of Israel don’t want to hear the answers to their questions, “Why us? Why now?” As we read Jeremiah over the next few weeks, we’ll get a lot of those answers, and we’ll hear Jeremiah’s anger at not being listened to. But today, in this first chapter, we read of his call by God to this thankless job. What does this text say?</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">The first few verses we read are powerful and poignant. They affirm God’s care and faithfulness. God has known Jeremiah, and each of us, from the moment of creation. And in contrast to this mighty God, who would not feel utterly inadequate? Jeremiah is not inhabiting that celebrity culture that is so familiar to us, that “me first; I am great” culture of stars and success stories we know all too well from our tabloid press, the blogosphere, and talk radio and tv. Jeremiah does not have “self-esteem” issues that just have to be cleared up with a little positive thinking. Jeremiah and each of us ARE dwarfed in every way by the majesty of God.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">And yet look what God says: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you to deliver you.” And why? Not just because God loves Jeremiah, just as he loves us, but because God has given Jeremiah the Word of God to speak. Jeremiah is not just making it up as he goes along. “You shall speak whatever I command you,” God tells him. Who would not be inadequate to such a purpose? And of course, if God wants something to get done in this world, then God seems to have no choice but to work through the people God has created – people like us: thoroughly inadequate. Think about this impossible scenario: Jerusalem is shattered; the people are crushed and sent into exile far away, and God sends Jeremiah the Word to tell these people that what has happened to them is also, somehow, their fault. The people do not want to hear what Jeremiah has to say; who would be adequate to this task?</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Look again at the text, where God sums up this Word that Jeremiah must deliver: pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow. What a shattering message. Can this really mean, the people of Israel think, that God sent this terrible thing to happen to us, that our kingdom, our city, our temple is destroyed? That what we were doing there all those years was somehow not what God wanted us to do? Why would God do such a thing?</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Look again at the end of the passage. God appoints Jeremiah to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, but also to build and to plant. That is the key to understanding the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. The destruction of everything the people of Israel had worked so hard to create was necessary in order for the Word of God to build and to plant what God had in mind for them. God’s last Word is not the destruction that the people would see all around them, but new life. New hope. A renewed and re-created world.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Think about your own life and times. What in your life has been shattered and scattered? What destruction has happened to you out of the blue? And what Word did God send to you, to help you understand it? A Word that perhaps at the time you did not recognize or embrace? A messenger you dismissed as a crackpot or irrelevant? A stumbling block you thought was just an irritant in your smooth trajectory to success? Perhaps it is only now that you can look back and see what it meant, and that out of that experience in which you were shattered and overthrown, God was indeed beginning to build and to plant something new and wonderful inside of you.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><br /></span></span><hr /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper16ot.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper16ot.html</span></span></span></span></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-22318589747978501712010-08-22T15:00:00.002-04:002010-08-22T15:05:05.191-04:00Saints and Superheroes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLMe8R_z_iYBwA6o8XNQUCwBbb8m4iHrwWvTCa9ChekgxixnI&t=1&usg=__zacb_CDvW4GjENyy8ZG0URdNeYY="><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLMe8R_z_iYBwA6o8XNQUCwBbb8m4iHrwWvTCa9ChekgxixnI&t=1&usg=__zacb_CDvW4GjENyy8ZG0URdNeYY=" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><h6 id="internal-source-marker_0.28419380355626345"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Proper 15 C</span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">August 15, 2010 </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18 </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56</span></span></span></span></h6><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">We are making a saint today. And all around us are a great cloud of witnesses, cheering us on.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">Several years ago, Hillary Clinton wrote a book:</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"> It Takes a Village</span></span></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">. She got the title from an African proverb: it takes a village to raise a child. It takes all the people who love a child, who care for the child’s future, to support that child into maturity. It’s not just the parents, the little nuclear family, who have to carry this burden alone: it takes a village. Or in our modern American context, it takes all of our extended family, the people we are born related to and the people we choose to be related to – our special friends – to support and love a child, and help him or her grow up to be the adult they want him to be.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">We are all here today for Ernesto Jose. We are that modern village, a collection of family and friends – some very close to Ernesto Jose indeed, and some of us who maybe are just meeting him today for the first time. It takes all of us to raise this child, or in the words of the baptismal service, it takes all of us to see that Ernesto Jose is brought up in the Christian life and faith. Parents and godparents have the intimate, day-to-day responsibilities, but all of us here today in this church have a stake in how Ernesto Jose grows up. Today, we are making a saint.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">What is wonderful about the church is that there are many more saints with us here today, cheering Ernesto Jose on – the Communion of Saints – the great cloud of witnesses, the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. There are those saints who are known only to us – parents, grandparents, loved ones who have died and gone before us. They are with us today. There are those great saints whose names everyone knows – great superheroes in the faith: they are with us today, as well. Today is also the feast day of Our Lady, St. Mary the Virgin, Mary, the mother of Jesus. Yes, indeed, all the saints in heaven and earth are here with us today.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">Those saints are like superheroes to us – the examples of wise and brave ones who help us in our everyday lives. When we wonder if we are making the right decision about something important, when we need help with our family, or raising our children, or worrying about what is around the next corner, we can just call those superheroes to our minds, for help and guidance and wisdom. How would we make it without those special personal saints of ours, those superheroes known perhaps only to us alone?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">So, as we baptize Ernesto Jose today, we may be making a new saint, but we are also making some new superheroes: you who love Ernesto Jose the most – you parents and godparents and dear friends: you are being made into superheroes today. To Ernesto Jose you will be those great and wise ones to whom he will look for love and guidance. If it takes a village to raise a child, well, in today’s world it takes a village of superheroes to raise a child. We all know the stresses and strains on family life, and no, no one can do it alone. No two parents can do it alone, no matter how superheroic. It takes friends, family, teachers, counselors, fellow church-goers, neighbors. All of us here are cheering you on.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">The bible tells us we are running a great race: a race toward God, really, toward our home, toward our hopes for a world in which all children are as beloved and cared for as Ernesto Jose. There are times when that race is tough, the course is bumpy, when we slow down or get side tracked. Sometimes we think we’ll never get to the end, we’re discouraged or troubled. But it is just at those times when the going gets rough that the superheroes really start to cheer us on. That’s when the saints earn their stars and the cloud of witnesses work up a head of steam. They are not going to leave us to run this race alone. Listen. Can you hear? They are with us.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;"> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000066;">Ernesto Jose, welcome to the company of the saints in light.</span></span></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-29767136342888699602010-08-22T13:05:00.004-04:002010-08-22T14:57:23.257-04:00Our own personal Gulf of Mexico<span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Proper 13 C August 1, 2010</span></b></span></span><div><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Hosea 11:1-11; </span></b></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwKITc4k2OS9vQ8nWIgpb7IoyQEPIkKxaxzl165hEnTqO6Jd8&t=1&usg=__yiEJEJwT6i8_z-93zITYC5UfFFM=" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 187px; height: 270px;" border="0" alt="" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Psalm 107</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"></span></span></b></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Colossians 3:1-11</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"></span></span></b></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Luke 12:13-21</span></b></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">“Lay not up for yourselves treasures in heaven …”</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">When I was a child, the priest switched around the words of that verse from the Gospel of Matthew. He quickly rectified his mistake, we all laughed, and he continued with the offertory sentence in the familiar way: </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">[i]</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">I think one of the reasons we laughed is that many of us probably wanted to lay up treasures on earth, despite all those risks Jesus mentioned. We would nod sagely at the prospect of the true treasure that would lie in our hearts, but isn’t the desire to accumulate things just built in to human nature? A dictionary search on the word “greed” reveals the Old English word </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">grædig</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">, meaning “voracious” or “covetous.” The root is found Old Saxon and Old Norse, in words meaning hunger, or eager. In Greek, the word was </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">philargyros</span></span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">, literally, “money-loving.” A German word for it is </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">habsüchtig</span></span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">, from</span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> haben</span></span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> “to have” + </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">sucht</span></span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> “sickness, disease,” with sense tending toward “passion for.” The word “greed” has long conveyed, in </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">many languages, the power of just how eagerly we desire things – indeed greed “is a sickness to have something.”</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">[ii]</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Or, in the words of Gordon Gekko, the anti-hero of the 1987 film, </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Wall Street</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">, “Greed is good.” </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">If such a tendency toward greed is an old human trait, so too do equally ancient sacred texts urge us to turn from these wicked ways. Jesus is very much in this very real world here, with his conversation with the unnamed man he calls, “Friend.” Jesus is not particularly nice to this “friend,” teasing him ironically, and then denouncing the man’s concerns with the wealth he seems to be assuming is rightfully his.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Humans just seem to have a hard time with having enough. We all want to have more. And as St. Paul reminds us, that act of “wanting more – and more, and more” takes us away from God. The act of </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); white-space: pre-wrap; ">wanting becomes our god; we idolize greed. We worship it. We end up choosing all those things that money can buy over God. Amazingly God wants us anyway. Even with all that greed-worship, God still chooses … us.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">The whole book of the prophet Hoses is about that love affair God has with us wayward humans who over and over again make the wrong choices. Hosea reminds the people of all the things they have done, and how angry this has made God. But in one of the most poignant verses in all of scripture, Hosea uses the intimate language of home and family to describe just how deep God’s love is for us:</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><i>When Israel was a child I loved him … It was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up in my arms … I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down and fed them …</i></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;color:transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">The people of Israel have been faithless and foolish. They have worshipped other gods, they have not followed the law God gave them through Moses. They have been greedy, unjust, selfish, murderous, adulterous – you name it. You know the drill. But through it all, this is how God talks about these people: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); white-space: pre-wrap; ">with words of poignant passion, with the never-ending love of a parent for a child.</span></div><div face="'Times New Roman'" size="medium" color="transparent" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">But as for us – well, there are some lessons that we never learn. Somewhere in all of our lives is a place like the Gulf of Mexico, a place that absorbs all of our baser instincts. I have heard that as terrible as this oil spill is, it is just the last assault in a long line of problems: pollution, excessive drilling, over-fishing. The dead spot in the Gulf is the result of fertilizer run-off from the upper Mississippi. The levees on the Mississippi keep the river in its banks (mostly) but also cause the erosion of the fertile and protective </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); white-space: pre-wrap; ">wetlands. The Gulf has been the place where if we wanted more, we just got it, no matter what the consequences. We greedy human beings know that place well; somewhere in all of our lives is a place like the Gulf of Mexico.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">But also somewhere in our lives is a place where the love of God is known, a place where we know just how much God loves us in spite of our tendency to be greedy. There is always a chance to turn around. Even in the Gulf of Mexico many people are saying, Now, maybe, we can start really to clean it up, to figure out ways to end the complicated chain events that so pollutes that body of water and hurts the heart of God. If we can begin to turn things around there, don’t you think we can begin to turn things </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); white-space: pre-wrap; ">around here? God is waiting. Like a parent teaching a child to walk, God is cheering us on.</span></div><div face="'Times New Roman'" size="medium" color="transparent" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background- "><hr /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"></span><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">[i]</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> Matthew 6:19-20</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">[ii]</span></span></span><a href="http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/lifting-our-mater-from-our-materialism/"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/lifting-our-mater-from-our-materialism/</span></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-20448176585016064492010-06-28T22:36:00.003-04:002010-06-28T22:47:53.621-04:00Lose the trappings. Gain the life.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TClcXR-MnxI/AAAAAAAAA0U/NWbYuIJpctc/s1600/secular+city.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/TClcXR-MnxI/AAAAAAAAA0U/NWbYuIJpctc/s200/secular+city.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488019175958683410" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Proper 8-C June 27, 2010 </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >1 Kings 2:1, 6-14</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Psalm 77 </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Galatians 5:1, 13-25</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Luke 9:51-62</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Some years ago, in the early 1960s, there were two popular books by then-young theologians. One was <a href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=206">The Secular City</a>, which talked about how little American society seemed to care about religion, or God, or the church – that we were moving into a “post-religious society.” The other was <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874331,00.html">The Suburban Captivity of the Churches</a>, which put some of the blame for this lack of interest held by the wider society in things religious, at the steps of the church door. The church had been domesticated, had become captive to the nice life of the suburbs. The church had become the place where middle class values reigned, where people went to church not because it meant much to them, or God forbid cost them anything too valuable, but because it was the thing to do. The church would bless and sanctify THEIR life style choices, their comfortable homes, the aspirations they had for their children to do well in school, succeed and prosper. Indeed, the church itself was the place to be comfortable, to be friends with people like “us,” whoever “we” were. Looking back, we can really see a dialog between these two books: one of the reasons one </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:K-qP1fqExMKbeM:http://www.churchsupplier.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/media/donation_boxes/87LG.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 115px;" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:K-qP1fqExMKbeM:http://www.churchsupplier.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/media/donation_boxes/87LG.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">theologian noticed that fewer people were taking the church seriously and preferring a “secular city” to a religious world view was that the church had become something that it was not supposed to become, something that Jesus had never intended it to become: a safe place, an orderly place, a place with no poor people, no conflicts, no challenges.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Well, some 40 years later, times have changed. Instead of increasing secularization, society has become increasingly religious. Part of the reason is the richness America receives from immigrants from all over the world: Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and of course Christians from all those places that used to be colonies. Soon after that book was published, the 1960s and ‘70s erupted in times of great upheaval – and so people began to realize that religious texts and faith were relevant – could provide guidance in troubling times.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Ah but there is the rub – and perhaps the explanation to the mindset of “the suburban captivity of the church.” These biblical texts, these words and stories about Jesus, are often themselves troubling. Jesus seems to be offering us comfort at the same time he challenges us to leave everything that is comfortable behind. No wonder people want the church to be a place of order and calm; if we took this Jesus too seriously, what kind of trouble would we invite?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Jesus we encounter in this week’s Gospel is serious, stern. We are not yet half way through the Gospel of Luke, but already Jesus’ face is set toward Jerusalem, toward his confrontation with the powers and principalities, toward his passion and death. Jesus is on a mission which is serious, and spare: he has no possessions, not even a place to call home. Whoever follows him is required to take up a similar strict regimen: “Let the dead bury their own dead” – the disciples are not even allowed the bare minimum of fealty to their families – “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” If Jesus’ face is set toward Jerusalem, so then are the faces of his disciples – and of all of us who even today consider ourselves followers of Jesus.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Signing up for the kingdom of God means we don’t know what will happen next. Elisha had no idea Elijah would be taken up in a dramatic whirl of fire, leaving him in charge. The disciples following Jesus wanted a better life, and they recognized in Jesus the One who could bring that Good News to them; those disciples just had no idea they had to make such a dramatic and permanent break with everything they had known and loved in the past. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The passage we read today from Paul’s letter to the Galatians reminds me of another text from the 1960s: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Remember that when Paul found Jesus, he lost everything else: his status, his job, his comfort zone of being a Jew with power to persecute others. Paul here recognizes that when he lost all those things, he found freedom. He became a disciple of Jesus long after he knew that following Jesus meant following him to his death. As yet another theologian, who reads these texts very closely, noticed that when you read today’s Gospel and this passage from Paul together, as we do today, you see that following Jesus does bring freedom but freedom …</span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">of a very peculiar kind. It is not self-indulgent freedom, but freedom that enhances the neighborhood. The sum of the new freedom is “love of neighbor” …</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjVkcno2NWZmNQ&hl=en#_edn1" target="_self">[i]</a></span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This church – St. Paul’s Church in Brockton – long ago lost all the things that made it so valuable in the Diocese of Massachusetts: it lost its status, its money, its members – all gone when the prosperity which built this neighborhood shipped out with the last shoe factories for China and Korea. For us indeed, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But look at it this way: when this church lost all the trappings of its “suburban captivity,” it gained many more things. It gained this neighborhood. It gained people knocking at the door who needed help. It gained a soup kitchen. It gained a reason for being in this place at this time. This church became a follower of Jesus. It became a holy place.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Over the past 25 years, members of this church became disciples of Jesus. You stayed in this neighborhood when you could have moved to the suburbs. You learned that in service you find freedom. You learned that it is more blessed to give than to receive. You learned that the gifts you received by living and working here made your cup overflow with things more valuable than money.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This is what today’s lessons mean for us today: the life of this church is inextricably tied up with the life of the soup kitchen. Being a disciple of Jesus means working for the welfare of this neighborhood, and the resources of the church – our money, our buildings, our people – should be dedicated to that purpose. Read these texts again. Pray seriously and deeply as you do. There is a cost when we follow Jesus on this road, where our tasks are to bring life and hope to the people God has given us to serve.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjVkcno2NWZmNQ&hl=en#_ednref1" target="_self">[i]</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> Walter Brueggemann, “June 27: Discipleship is No Picnic,” A Cast of Emancipated Characters, from Sojourners Magazine, June 2010 (Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 48). Living the Word.</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-47459613838674834002010-06-06T15:39:00.004-04:002010-06-06T15:59:44.252-04:00Seeing the world through God's eyes<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Proper 5-C; June 6, 2010</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >1 Kings 17:8-24; Ps. 146; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Death comes in many forms: the gradual death from sickness or old age. The violent death of war, of gunshots on the street on hot summer nights, of crimes of passion or anger. The accidental deaths of children dying too young, tragically before their parents. The cruel, lingering death that comes from famine, poverty, drought. The death of the spirit, that comes from a broken heart, or a profound disappointment, of promises lost or hopes waylaid.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >We fear all of these kinds of death, and more, and many parts of the world in which we live are gripped by that fear of death. Paralyzed, people shut off all possibilities of change, all hope that anything could be any different than the way it is now.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >One way we indulge in the fear of death is by remaining isolated, singular. We alone have faith in God who has a personal relationship only with us, like we are at the bottom of a long tube. The rest of the world doesn’t really matter, when we live in that kind of fear, that masquerades as faith. If it is just about me and Jesus, well, what is happening in, say the Gulf of Mexico right now is not my concern; there is nothing I can do about it, so hey? A neighborhood like this is not my concern, not if I don’t live here. People coming to lunch at the Table are not my concern, nor are victims of drive-by shootings, or people trapped by addiction or alcohol. The foreclosure crisis doesn’t affect me, nor the stock market’s ups and downs, unless I have an investment portfolio.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >The society we live in reinforces that life of fear, and if we remain captive to that ungodly fear of death, then no, there is nothing we can do about all those things swirling around us. Walk by the body of that dead man being carried out; don’t even get too close for fear of contamination.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >If we see the world through God’s eyes, however, we see things very differently. We feel things very differently. We feel compassion, and that compassion causes us to act, and through that action, the circle of our self widens out into the world, the great world God has made, and for whom God has endless compassion.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Scholars believe that this letter that St. Paul wrote to the Galatians came early in his career. Reading Galatians, we encounter a wild and enthusiastic man, burning with the spirit and passionate about this Gospel that is so new and life-giving to him. Paul has turned away from a life that dealt in death, and remember, was struck blind, until Jesus came to him. From that moment on, he saw the world through God’s eyes, a world that needed all the welcoming embrace and Good News that it could get.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wmcwels.com/clipart/115.gif"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 247px;" src="http://www.wmcwels.com/clipart/115.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Our first and last stories from scripture illustrate that Good News, that view of the world through God’s eyes. In fact, Jesus himself cited this story from 1st Kings, of Elijah bringing the widow’s son back to life. Way back last winter, on the 3rd and 4th Sundays after the Epiphany,</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjNoaDZoNjhjZA&hl=en#_edn1" target="_self">[i]</a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" > we read about Jesus’ first sermon in the synagogue in his hometown, the one where he said he had come to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. Great, the people said; do it here. Heal us. Take care of us. No, he said, this prophecy, this work, is bigger than this hometown, bigger than our little world, our own concerns. He reminded them of Elijah, who brought back to life not someone from his own community, but a foreigner; Elijah saw the poor widow of Zarephath through God’s eyes, and saw that God’s compassion and new life must extend to her as well. This really made the people of Nazareth mad; they tried to throw him off a cliff.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >So when Jesus brings another widow’s son back to life, this Elijah story must be in everyone’s mind. This is another poor widow, who will be bereft and condemned to a slow death without her son to support her. To touch a dead body would be the height of improper, impure behavior. Death, and fear, and loss, and grief: that is the way the world works, and everyone would think that Jesus should just leave this situation alone.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >But remember: Jesus sees the world through God’s eyes, with compassion for the suffering widow. When he raises her son, she too is restored to wholeness. No longer caught in that no place of grief, that tunnel vision of fear, she is now fully restored to her place, as mother, as a productive member of her community.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://inillotempore.com/blog/images/15th_Sun_After_Pent_Pic.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 314px; height: 198px;" src="http://inillotempore.com/blog/images/15th_Sun_After_Pent_Pic.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Jesus healed many people, brought people back to life, gave sight to the blind and set the captives free – but not literally each captive. Surely there were thousands of people Jesus did NOT walk by, and thousands more who only heard about what Jesus was doing, very like we only hear about what Jesus did, sitting here two thousand years later.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >But what Jesus and Elijah and Paul, and the Psalmist, want us to know is that Jesus does not have to rub mud on us for us to see the world through God’s eyes. Our dead bodies don’t have to be brought back to life in order to believe in God’s compassion. Letting go of our own fear, and of the hold the fear of death has over us, is enough. You and I may not literally be able to raise people from the dead, but we are called to be conduits of God’s grace.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjNoaDZoNjhjZA&hl=en#_edn2" target="_self">[ii]</a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" > We are called to see the world through God’s eyes, to see it with the compassion with which God sees it – all of it: this neighborhood, the friends and strangers who come to lunch, the people who have moved to this town from all over the world and who find this city a place of hope and new life.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >We are not here to care only for ourselves in this church; indeed, if we did nothing in this neighborhood, did not support the Table, did not work to tear down blighted buildings and create a better, more beautiful block, if we did not work the political system, and raise money, then no, God would not be pleased with us. We would not be seeing the world, and this neighborhood, and these people around us, with God’s eyes.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >But we cannot stop here, rest on our laurels of good works. Like that young man who was dead, let us sit up and rub out eyes and begin to speak of compassion and mercy and welcome. There is so much more to do.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjNoaDZoNjhjZA&hl=en#_ednref1" target="_self">[i]</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Luke 4:16-30</span><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMjNoaDZoNjhjZA&hl=en#_ednref2" target="_self">[ii]</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > Susanna Metz, </span><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_86242_ENG_HTM.htm">http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_86242_ENG_HTM.htm</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-16003704311804086482010-05-24T09:06:00.004-04:002010-05-24T09:21:08.333-04:00God is on the side of the people who do not even know there are sides<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S_p5_TqR0YI/AAAAAAAAAzg/geH8Fv3O1Xk/s1600/Ascension+-+Lion.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S_p5_TqR0YI/AAAAAAAAAzg/geH8Fv3O1Xk/s320/Ascension+-+Lion.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474822425538580866" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Easter 7-C May 16, 2010</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Acts 16:16-34</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Psalm 97 </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >John 17:20-26</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >On this Sunday </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, we proclaim that God is truly Lord over the earth. This great Lion of justice reigns. Evil – this dragon – is defeated, wrapped in chains, trampled underfoot.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Let us not be naïve; there are many things that trouble us in this world. If Jesus is born, risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, why do things still go wrong? Evils unpunished, feelings still hurt, injustice still perpetrated?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Paul and Silas, fresh from their dazzling conversion of the wealthy Lydia and her household, encounter this slave girl who is very much out of whack. She is a diviner for hire – kind of a spiritual prostitute, working for some men who exploit her gifts. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >She is very annoying to Paul and Silas, with her proclaiming boldly that they come from “the Most High God.” She is very loud. That is one of the names of the Emperor. Paul and Silas know that such unwanted publicity could get them in a lot of trouble – and she is confusing their message. Why can’t all converts be like Lydia? Rich, thoughtful, quiet, obedient, generous? Who is this annoying girl who speaks the truth in a most inconvenient way, even though it will cost her her meager livelihood?</span><br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S_p6beA5-rI/AAAAAAAAAzw/AHi-jJSxT4A/s1600/Ascension+-+dragon.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S_p6beA5-rI/AAAAAAAAAzw/AHi-jJSxT4A/s200/Ascension+-+dragon.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474822909354179250" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >The world is a troubled place, even here in the Acts of the Apostles, the early years after Christ’s Ascension. In this passage alone we read of slavery, sexual exploitation, imprisonment on trumped up charges, cruel punishment like beatings and </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >shackles and underground cells. The money men, and the power men, and the military men – they are all still in charge. The Acts of the Apostles tells a disturbing story of a world like ours – a world into which, nonetheless, the powerful spirit of God breaks through disturbing, destabilizing, and freeing.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Spirits are a powerful force in human nature. We may give them different names at different times of our lives or in different cultures. They inhabit our childhood </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >dreams. Even as adults we may fear what lurks around the corner. Are not cruel and evil people caught up in spirits that take them away from their true nature? How else could anyone even imagine torture or murder, unless they were no longer in their right mind?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >We may learn from the wisdom of some African cultures who give names to these spirits, and by so doing bring them out of the darkness where we fear them and into the light where we can see these powerful forces in perspective. In the Central African Republic, I recently read, witchcraft is outlawed. There are lawyers in that country who wan</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >t to get rid of that law as outdated, as unjust – there is no proof for witchcraft. There can be no due process without proof; the accused often confess to this crime which they did not commit, just to get a lighter sentence. But there is some logic to this seemingly unjust law: the belief in witchcraft is so powerful that if there were not the possibility of criminal prosecution, people could just grab any one they considered to be witches, “bring them to a pit and bury them alive.</span><a style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMTdndDU3Z2JjYg&hl=en#endnote1" target="_self">1</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >”</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >We have much to learn also from the wisdom of our new friend Moses, who brings to us his experience working with women who are disempowered, neglected, abused. They turn to witchcraft, he says, because they feel they have no power against a husband who beats them, against a system that exploits their down-at-the-bottom status. Would not the key to their liberation be to break the cycle of abuse by their oppressors? To convince these men that they too are imprisoned by this system of domination and exploitation?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >It was almost an afterthought for Paul to exorcise the spirit that imprisoned the</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > slave girl. But later, after his own experience of powerful and evil spirits, shackled in an underground jail cell, he frees his own jailer of his imprisonment. The earthquake caused the jailer to fear for his life – not because the quake was an act of God, but because the prisoners might go free, and then he, who had had the power to beat and imprison, was in danger of receiving the same treatment if his charges escaped. When Paul and Silas acted generously toward their jailer – stayed put when they could have run free – it was the jailer they freed, freed him from the domination system in which he was only one cog in the wheel, one more lackey to be punished if the powerful spirits at the top did not get their way.</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >We, too, live in troubled times. But God-with-us is </span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://happylotus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/compassion.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 174px;" src="http://happylotus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/compassion.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >also with us in the troubled</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" > </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >times. God is on the side of the people who do not even know there are sides, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >people who only know what it means to be pushed around and told what to do and taken advantage of. The power of God can break through it all, and bind us together instead with love and friendship and compassion and hope.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >1 “Hex Appeal” by Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, June 2010, p. 20.</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-26538766020395186582010-05-17T10:08:00.003-04:002010-05-17T10:33:18.254-04:00We are tricked into believing we cannot take up our mats and walk<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.whichfordandascott.co.uk/_wp_generated/wpdc14ca78_0f.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 172px;" src="http://www.whichfordandascott.co.uk/_wp_generated/wpdc14ca78_0f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Easter 6-C May 9, 2010</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Acts 16:9-15</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Psalm 67 </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"> John 5:1-9</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We here at St. Paul’s, Brockton, are the beneficiaries of the imperial reach of the Church of England. This was an English colony, yes, long ago, but also were Jamaica and Trinidad and Nigeria and Kenya and Ghana. The Church of England marched over the globe with the British Empire, and a lot of those global Anglicans have ended up right here! Along with the wonderful parts of the faith – the robust, universal things that people from cultures all over the globe took into their hearts and languages and made their own – the music, the customs, the traditions from many different places that now define “Anglicanism” – the Church of England also exported some peculiar and quaint customs – customs that may have made sense in England’s “green and pleasant land,” where the seasons change and the crops are planted and harvested on the calendar of the northern hemisphere. Today is one of those quaint customs: Rogation Sunday, when in “merry olde England” prayers were asked at the time of the spring planting of the crops. In the Anglican churches of the southern hemisphere, or in countries around the equator, is this the time to plant crops? Probably not. But here, today, we in this same northern hemisphere, are in the season of planting, and so we pray to God for a good yield. We sing hymns that assure us that God has made the earth, and the earth brings us health and wealth and beauty and joy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The lessons are not “Rogation” lessons but they are full of the abundance of God’s creation. Healing and abundance often go together in the Gospel. “Being sick” is often a social disease – a social condition. The sick person is out of whack with his or her surroundings, cast out of the family, the normal social dealings of town or city. It’s like they say in AA: some are sicker than others. The sick person is truly the pariah, the untouchable, the one no one can help because he cannot help himself.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.artfund.org/assets/image/artwork/001578_002899_0.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 199px;" src="http://www.artfund.org/assets/image/artwork/001578_002899_0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The man in the gospel story today has no idea who Jesus is. He does not ask to be healed. He declares no faith in this Jesus, no recognition that this one is the Son of God – nothing. All we know about the man is that he is trapped in his infirmity. He cannot get to the pool in time to take advantage of the healing waters. The “less sick” people crowd out this “truly sick” person, and shockingly, there is just not enough healing to go around.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Is that not the case in the world we live in? The truly sick have no access – isn’t that the mantra? No access to health care, to jobs, to decent housing. They have no way to get to see their families or to go home or to take care of their own affairs. We know people like that. We have all been people like that, at one time or another in our lives.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">It’s no lie: in a society like ours we are tricked into believing there is not enough to go around. We are tricked into believing that if we don’t hustle our butts over to that pool at one of the rare times the waters are ready to heal us, then we will get nothing. We are tricked into believing that we are defined by our addiction, or our disability, or by the people who do not like us, or do not understand us, or who somehow conspire to keep us down. We are tricked into believing we have no dignity, cannot stand up for ourselves, can never, in any countless number of ways, take up our own mats and walk.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">God has other ideas for us. In this city of God where we live, this new Jerusalem, this new heaven and new earth, the light of God shines from the center, life-giving water flows from crystal fountains, providing all people and all nations with healing and with abundant fruit of every kind: a true Rogation-tide of blessing and fertility.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">When Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made well?” he rips asunder all those lies and deceptions and traps and tricks that make us think there is not enough to go around. Jesus heals the man without the pool, without the lines, without a green card or a social security number. Jesus does not require that the man have a sponsor or an appointment or a college degree. “Take up your bed and walk,” Jesus says. It is the Sabbath. God’s work breaks all the rules, even God’s own rules that people have been following faithfully. Jesus heals on the Sabbath, on God’s sacred time. In this new Jerusalem, there is always enough to go around: enough healing, enough time, enough life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">In this holy Rogationtide, come and be fed. Feel the clean air on your face and dig deeply into the fertile earth. Do not believe any of those tricks that there is not enough of anything to go around, for all of these gifts are God’s to give, and God’s alone. Take up your mat and walk. This is the new Sabbath.</span><br /><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-79618702241688767492010-05-08T16:05:00.003-04:002010-05-08T16:23:16.561-04:00The home of God is among mortals ... the home of the Episcopal Church is among the poor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S-XFS2koHTI/AAAAAAAAAzY/dUvC6OEO-gg/s1600/handicap+access+%282%29+March+2009+%282%29.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S-XFS2koHTI/AAAAAAAAAzY/dUvC6OEO-gg/s320/handicap+access+%282%29+March+2009+%282%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468994250188791090" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Easter 5-C May 2, 2010 </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Acts 11:1-18 Psalm 148 </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Revelation 21:1-6</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"> John 13:31-35</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">These are lessons from dreams: strange, powerful, hallucinatory, disturbing dreams. The Spirit is alive and active in a peculiar and subversive way in today’s lessons: what can these dreams possibly mean? And how can they hang together?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">What could be a better dream than this part of the Revelation of St. John the Divine? This is God’s dream for us, this new heaven and new earth, this holy city, this new Jerusalem, and we are all in it, bedecked in our finest clothes, bejeweled and adorned. And in our dream a loud voice finally tells us just what is going on. “The home of God is among mortals,” the voice says. “God will be with them and wipe every tear from their eyes.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">It’s the same dream we have been having since before Christmas, when we were dreaming of Emmanuel, God with us, and woke up to find a little baby, born to a poor mother who had no where to sleep but barn. From the moment we woke up on that Christmas morning, we found a God here with us, among us who are poor and downtrodden and longing for a better life in a better place. A God who was just as poor and downtrodden and hope-filled as we were. “See,” says the voice of this same God, this God who lived and walked among us, this God who started out his human life as a poor baby. “See, I am making all things new. Write this. This is trustworthy and true.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">What can this dream mean to us, we who live in this poor neighborhood where people live when they have no where else to go?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Listen again to Peter’s dream, from the first lesson. Jews in those days, remember, were not supposed to eat certain kinds of food, and certainly not supposed to eat that food with certain kinds of people – people who were not Jews. Jews, after much persecution and violence, wanted to keep to themselves, to live the lives God wanted them to live, which included rules about what food to eat, and with whom one could eat it. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">But in this dream, God seems to be telling Peter to cast those rules aside – to eat food that had been forbidden, food that Peter says has long been considered unclean, unfit to eat. And, perhaps more importantly, to eat this food with people Peter would not have been caught dead with. It’s like Peter came to the Table one day, Peter who had been so high and mighty and self-righteous, and so proud that he had never had to eat in a soup kitchen, that he had never been so hungry that he had had to wait in line in all kinds of weather just to get lunch. It’s like God said to Peter, go down there to Brockton, wait in line and have some lunch – maybe even some pork sausage – with people you didn’t think you would ever be caught dead with. “What God has made clean,” the voice told him, “you must not call profane.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This may be a shabby place, this St. Paul’s, Brockton, but maybe this is the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth. God certainly makes God’s home among these mortals, and eats lunch downstairs. Open the doors, God tells us. Put on the coffee. Turn on the heat when it’s cold, and the fans when it’s hot. “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life,” the voice of God tells us. “Love one another.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">You would think the Episcopal Church would be the last church in the world to stay in a neighborhood like this. The Episcopal Church, “the church of wealth and culture” – surely Episcopalians dream of castles in Spain, cruises on the Riviera, financial deals on Wall Street, or copper mines in Chile. And I will say that many of the people who have had oversight of this parish have lived in a world quite out of touch with our daily reality.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">But I was reminded last week that the same God who sent St. Peter downstairs to the Table for lunch speaks to Episcopalians, too. </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_121942_ENG_HTM.htm">Two years ago our Presiding Bishop announced a commitment to be in places like this neighborhood, and for the church to do what it can to end the poverty that plagues so many of our friends and neighbors.</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> I’ve had her announcement on my blog ever since. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Do you remember these challenges? I posted them in the chapel when we worshiped there two winters ago. We left them up all of Lent, and now we will leave them up in church for the rest of the Easter season, and all through the season of Pentecost. “See,” these challenges say to us, “the home of God is among mortals.” These challenges to the church are also promises to us. The Episcopal Church says it believes these things; will Episcopalians make good on them? Will they stand with us in this God-filled place? Will they carry out the dream of God to make even this new?</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-82051369762969223202010-05-08T15:51:00.002-04:002010-05-08T16:03:21.542-04:00Mary, don't you weep<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wunrn.com/news/2009/09_09/09_07_09/090709_burkina_files/image001.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 448px; height: 298px;" src="http://www.wunrn.com/news/2009/09_09/09_07_09/090709_burkina_files/image001.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Yes, I am a BIT late in posting these Easter sermons. I preached Easter Day and Easter 3. I was blessed by colleagues preaching Easter 2 and Easter 4 at St. Paul's instead of me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Easter April 4, 2010 St. Paul’s Isaiah 65:17-25</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"> Ps. 118 Acts 10:34-43</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"> John 20: 1-18</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">As remarkable as this weekend weather is, it IS natural. The rains and the floods, the wet basements, the washed-out roads – as awful as all that was, that WAS natural, too.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">We woke up this morning to a new heavens and a new earth – washed clean, sun shining, flowers blooming. Those former things - -the floods, shall we say, of our lives – are not to be remembered today. A spring morning like this one seems miraculous, astounding, amazing – but it IS natural. We knew the earth would turn and the spring would come back again. We are delighted – we may not understand how it all happens, but we knew, somehow, it would.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Death is natural, but resurrection is not.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">If we had been there with the disciples, and put Jesus into the tomb on Friday, we would have expected that he would still be there. That is natural.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">If we were Mary, weeping and grieving, going to tend to our dear friend’s burial place, we would have expected it to be the way we left it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">But what Mary found was decidedly not natural. It was a scene of confusion, beyond recognition. Had these men taken the body? Mary was so expecting the natural that she did not even recognize anything out of the ordinary about them – about these angels in white. Mary turned and challenged the one she assumed – quite naturally – to be the gardener. In fear and haste she assumed – quite naturally – that this one had taken away the body of her beloved friend. And when she finally recognized him, she realized he was so different. “Don’t cling to me,” he said, so unlike her beloved teacher whose feet she had washed with her own tears just a few days before. No longer only that man of the natural order, that human being like the rest of us, he was now “on his way to God, and he was taking the whole world with him.</span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMDhkYzZwMzJmZg&hl=en#_edn1">[i]</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">” NOT a natural thing to do, but maybe that is something of what Isaiah had in mind when he spoke of God creating a new heavens and a new earth. Into this new heaven Jesus is going, and taking all of us, all of what it means to be human, to suffer, to love and to die, into that new heaven along with him.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">There are many ways to die a natural death: Jesus met a violent, bloody end, executed like a common criminal. Other people drink themselves to death, or jump off bridges, or are so sad they cannot bear to live another day. Some people die long before their time, and others embrace death as a friend in their old age. All lives come, one way or another, to their natural end.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">But today, with this story of the stone rolled away from the tomb, we have hope for something else. Into this new heavens and new earth something entirely new and different has come to pass – or is this something God has had in mind all along? Did not God say, though Isaiah, that no longer will infants die only a few days old? Did not God promise, in this new earth, for a person to live a healthy life for 100 years? Did not God promise that each family would live in their own home, not threatened by foreclosure or loss? Did not God promise that this new earth would produce food in abundance, watered by the gentle rains of the new heavens? Children would not be born just to die in war, and old enemies, like wolves and lambs, lions and oxen, would lie down in peace. If that is the case, then this holy mountain, foreseen by Isaiah, is not a natural place at all.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Into this un-natural place, this new heavens and new earth we have all been baptized. Today we welcome Joseph into this fellowship of crazy, unnatural hope. And as we renew those baptismal promises today, as we feel the water of new life splash on our heads, we know this myth of the resurrection to be true. We know it in our bones. We know it in our souls. We know it right down at the bottom of our natural hearts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Alleluia! Christ is risen!</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl8xMDhkYzZwMzJmZg&hl=en#_ednref1">[i]</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"> The unnatural truth - Jeremiah 31:1-6; Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 - Living by the Word </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058">Christian Century</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">, </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n10_v113">March 20, 1996</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"> by </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Barbara+Brown+Taylor%22">Barbara Brown Taylor</a></span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.zianet.com/maxey/beach2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 181px;" src="http://www.zianet.com/maxey/beach2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">Easter 3-C Apr. 18, 2010 St. Paul’s Acts 9:1-20</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"> Psalm 30 Rev 5:11-14</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">John 21:1-19</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">Conversion stories are a dime a dozen. Who hasn’t heard somebody say, NOW I see the light. NOW my life is going to be different. NOW I’m going to turn around …</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">To do what? What are those conversion stories about? Usually just that one person, who usually is someone who has gotten into a real pickle, whose life is in trouble and who NEEDS to turn around. The college kid who wakes up from a bender and says, I’m never going to drink that much ever again! The man who has gone on a shopping spree when he saw the sale sign at Best Buy – just how many TVs do I need, anyhow? We all know stories about people who ate too much or loved too much or hit their head against any number of walls one too many times. Conversion stories are stock in trade for interviewers like Oprah Winfrey or Barbara Walters.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">These stories go right along with our culture that celebrates the individual, the great “I.” Me First. Me Alone. I’ve got to get my act together before … I need to take care of Number One …</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">You know these refrains. It would seem that this great conversion story of Saul, being blinded by the light, falling off his horse, turning away from his life of persecuting the followers of Jesus, is Version No. 1 of all those narratives. Was blind but now I see. How many times have we heard that?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">And yes, Saul-before and Paul-after ARE two different people. He DID turn his life around. That WAS the big moment from which he could never turn back. But what makes the Saul/Paul narrative different from what we hear on Oprah or a Barbara Walters special, is that this new Paul isn’t converted just for his own personal growth and development, or as one step among twelve, or to get in touch with his inner self. Paul is converted for the world. Paul is converted so he can take the story of Jesus into the world, and by so doing change it. Paul is recruited for the New World.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">Paul’s conversion happens in a couple of stages. First, there is the incident with the light and the horse. Then he stumbles around and is led to recover in someone’s house. Then Jesus sends a messenger, Ananias, to this Saul-not-yet-Paul-still-in-limbo, to give him his preaching instructions. Paul is to bring the story of Jesus to the gentiles, to kings, and to the people of Israel. In short, Paul is to take this story of Jesus – the one whose disciples he has been persecuting – out to the whole known world. He is not to keep all this good news to himself, this light-filled, healing, new life stuff. Paul is recruited for the New World.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">The story of breakfast on the beach is also a story of this New World. The last thing the disciples are expecting from that morning of fishing is anything new. It is soon after Jesus’ death, and amazingly, they have seen him since – with Thomas, examining the marks of his death in his hands and feet. They know something new has happened but they are not quite sure what. But in this story of the miraculous catch of fish, they begin to get hints of what this New World will be like. Do you remember those Gentiles, Kings and People of Israel Paul will preach to? They are like the fish – an abundance of fish, a plethora of fish, so many fish that they fear the nets will break. This is what the New World will be, Jesus promises. So many people following the Way, so many people converted and seeing the light and falling off their horses that you will have your hands full as you try to reach them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">So the New World is a place of abundance, of lots of bread and fish and always enough to go around. The New World is also a place of love: these inhabitants of the New World need love, and the disciples are the ones who take the love of God to them. That’s why the conversion story about Saul is not just about Saul; it’s about what Saul DOES once he becomes Paul. This story of breakfast on the beach is not just a story of a good time the disciples have with their old friend. They get their marching orders here. Feed my lambs, Jesus says. Tend my sheep. Get out of yourselves and into the world, into the New World of compassion and abundance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">“Follow me,” Jesus says. But there is a cost to that following. He uses this peculiar metaphor of old age and infirmity – is the kingdom of heaven like living in a nursing home? Where the nurses tie belts around your waist, so you won’t fall down, and lead you where you don’t want to go? Breakfast on the beach makes following Jesus look as easy as – dare I say it? – falling off a horse! But I think here that Jesus is reminding us just how high the cost of discipleship is. Jesus is reminding his beloved friends of his own death, of the cost of his being the herald of this New World of compassion and abundance. To be a follower of Jesus is to risk angering some very powerful people who would rather the world stayed old, with people going hungry, and staying wounded and alienated, and living in darkness and fear. That old world is a much easier place to govern. It’s so much more predictable, if the poor stay poor, so the rich can stay rich, if people just stay in their places and follow orders.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">Don’t follow orders, Jesus said. Follow me. See the light. Come have breakfast. Now, who are you going to invite to this party? And what are you going to tell them about how your world has changed?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-65353557619352689262010-04-03T18:05:00.002-04:002010-04-03T18:10:46.686-04:00Stumbling along the way of the cross<span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S7e8Jl2j8cI/AAAAAAAAAzI/YE9hfPW-j1E/s1600/Altar+of+repose+2010.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S7e8Jl2j8cI/AAAAAAAAAzI/YE9hfPW-j1E/s320/Altar+of+repose+2010.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456036346548449730" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">Good Friday</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">April 2, 2010</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">Isaiah 52:13-52:12; Ps. 22 </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;"> John 18:28-19:16</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Each year on Good Friday I am struck by how vivid John's dramatic account of the trial of Jesus is. It is an action story: Pilate goes back and forth between the two courts of his official residence, the praetorium. The calm orderliness of the Roman interrogation is contrasted with with frenzied cries of hate from those hostile to Jesus in the outside court. Pilate's travels from one scene to another, as John dramatically stages this story, reflect the inner stuggle of the Roman prefect, and his increasing conviction of Jesus' innocence in the face of the people's demands to have him killed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">The way John tells his story emphasizes the symbolism of darkness and light, truth and falsehood. Jesus in this gospel is a man of no compromise: "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Those who do not listen to the truth of his voice, or who do not act on those beliefs and follow him, are wrong. They dwell in darkness. Like Judas, they choose Satan. This is how John has portrayed "the Jews," the religious and political authorities of the Jewish people who are hostile to Jesus. Over the centuries, this blaming of the Jews for the death of Jesus has been one of the causes of great evil in the name of the Christian Church. That, too, is one of the legacies of Good Friday, one of the great sins we must live with. For centuries in Europe, Jewish people lived in great fear and terror on Good Friday, for after the reading of John's Gospel devout Christians would leave their churches and go on bloody rampages, killing Jews in their homes and neighborhoods in cities and towns.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Why would John portray the Jews this way? Jesus was Jewish, was he not? And why would John (and Matthew, Mark and Luke, for that matter) go to such lengths to make sure Pilate and the Roman authorities proclaim Jesus' innocence even though they are his executioners? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Palestine in the first century was one of Rome's most troublesome and politically volatile territories. The “establishment cooperated with the Empire, even though by doing that they compromised their faith and religious practice. Other Jews, poor peasants, wanted freedom from Roman oppression. Groups of armed guerrilla bandits were common in Judea, hoping for a political messiah to help them overthrow the Empire by revolution. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">When we look more closely at the context surrounding the trial of Jesus, we see why both Roman and Jewish authorities had good reason to want to get rid of Jesus. The Romans could not afford to encourage anyone who might incite the revolutionaries, and the Temple authorities knew that if a Jew could be so accused by the Romans, they could all be demolished by Roman power. Those were the political charges. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">The religious threat of Jesus was also great to a devout Jew: Jesus was a blasphemer; he called himself the Son of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Jesus’ message held great appeal and hope to the poor; this was a challenge to the establishment. He was labeled a false prophet, like Jeremiah, who also told a harsh, uncomfortable truth to the Jewish authorities of his day.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">This is the backdrop against which John stages his dramatic conflict. Those who sought to kill Jesus dwelt in sin and ignorance and darkness. The establishment saw him as trouble-maker. His followers who wanted him to be a political or military hero left the scene of the crucifixion completely disappointed. But at the end of the first century, when John wrote down this account of the death of Jesus, it didn’t matter so much to John what those people thought. The Romans were to be feared. By then they were actively persecuting and killing Christians. Such accounts of Pilate were written, partially, to convince the Roman authorities of the day that Christians, too, could be law-abiding citizens of the Empire.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">It is in the confusion and mixed motives and political pressures of this world Jesus that is sent to his death. It is night, the deepest darkness of those who saw him and did not believe, those who heard him and did not listen, those who followed him and did not heed his commandment to love with the great self-sacrificial love in which God gave his only Son to the world, in order that the world might be saved through him.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Maundy Thursday; </span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">April 1, 2010</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">Exodus 12:1-14a; Ps. 116 </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0); font-weight: bold;">1 Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-15</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">The story which most captured the imaginations of African American Christians was the story of the Exodus: Moses, living the privileged life in Pharaoh’s household; Moses finding out who his real people, and his real God, were; Moses leading the Hebrew children out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. The slaves knew this story on every level. They knew it as a long-ago story of God and Israel, as their masters supposed they knew it. They knew it symbolically as a future story, that one day, in the sweet by-and-by, their troubles would end and in death they would cross over to the Promised Land. And they knew it as a story of the here and now, as a sign pointing the way to real freedom through the dangers of the underground railroad. They knew their leaders would come from among them, like Moses, to show them the way. They knew this story theologically, spiritually, politically, and it is a great gift to us and to our faith, that this interpretation is part of our tradition.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Today’s Maundy Thursday gospel tells the story of a Passover seder, the ritual meal in which Jesus and his followers would have heard once again the familiar story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, the deliverance from slavery into the promised land. Jesus now makes his own life a part of that story of deliverance. This story is now a story about eternal life. This story tells us about how to live that eternal life in this life: “Love one another as I have loved you. ... you ought to wash one another’s feet.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Jesus talks about cleanliness and leadership here: to be clean is to take on the same mission as Jesus: to share in his suffering and his glory. To be a leader is to be the one who loves, the one who serves, who is humble enough to accept service and suffering as the consequence of love.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Not everyone is clean, Jesus says. He means Judas, the betrayer, the one who refuses to be clean, to come from darkness to light, from death to life. Judas, at some level, seeks to control God’s glory, to channel it by the rules of this world, to place limits on Jesus’ activity by handing him over to real authorities who will keep him in line. Real lords would not wash other, lesser, peoples’ smelly feet. Real lords would not come from “below” to risk their lives to bring slaves out of bondage into freedom.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">“Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Unless you are able to accept with love the service of the humble, and then follow that example of love and service to all kinds of people -- rich and poor, smelly and fragrant -- then you will never know the glory of God. Kings, lords, benefactors, those who sit on the boards of charitable foundations, CEOs, presidents, cardinal rectors, senior wardens, gentlewomen clergy and bishops: all of us who live like Moses with the privileges of Pharaoh’s household are called to come out of our privilege; to discover who our real people, and our real God, are; to serve and to be served. It is only by God's mighty hand that we, like Moses, are freed from bondage to our lordliness and benefaction. It is only by Jesus’ invitation that we can come out of the darkness into the light, and it is only by following Jesus’ example that we can be among our sisters and brothers, as one who serves.</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-42980266752772605652010-03-28T15:38:00.007-04:002010-03-28T16:08:54.935-04:00From Palms to Passion<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >First, a bit of a rant:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >I have recently come across churches which use a "harmonization" of the gospels instead of reading the Passion Gospel from the actual Bible. I find that this attempt to explain away some of the difficult parts of the Bible ... well, kind of useless. The text is offensive, and in some places inaccurate, anti-Semitic, violent, and open to all sorts of erroneous interpretations which have been promulgated through the centuries. Our late-modern attempts to take a bit of this, a bit of that, just to make it more palatable for the current intellectual fad of "progressive Christianity" is, I think, really useless. Useless because it makes preachers lazy: how do we really get our fellow Christians truly to wrestle with the depth of this tragic story if we short-circuit how difficult and counter-cultural it is to understand in our day and age? Useless also because unlike the "progressive Christians" around us, I find that the theology is not the problem with the church: it's the practice, how we live out our lives as Christians in this extraordinarily difficult time and place we find ourselves, namely 21st century America. How do we understand the violence that assaults all kinds of vulnerable people, as the violence perpetrated by the powerful assaulted Jesus? How do we confront the growing disparity between the privileged and the poor, the disparity we see all around us every day, in light of Jesus' obvious solidarity with the last, littlest and least? How do we read words written in a far-away place thousands of years ago, and try to figure out what sense they make to us, here and now, today, if Christians come to church on a Palm Sunday morning, thinking they will hear this central story of the Christian faith, in its strange, peculiar, rough and dated language, and get instead a faddish interpretation tailored to the status quo of an academic intelligentsia?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >That being said, what follows is my stab at how to begin this difficult week, attempting to face, rather than dodge, all about this Passion Gospel that makes me feel guilty, uncomfortable, miserable, afraid, worried and angry.</span><br /><a style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.rockinghamgallery.co.uk/Artist_Pages/Gill/Images/Gill%20thumbnails/27.%20jesus%20dies%20upon%20the%20cross.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 147px;" src="http://www.rockinghamgallery.co.uk/Artist_Pages/Gill/Images/Gill%20thumbnails/27.%20jesus%20dies%20upon%20the%20cross.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Palm Sunday</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >March 28, 2010</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Isaiah 50:4-9a</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Ps. 31:9-16</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Philippians 2:5-11</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Luke 19:28-40 and Passion Gospel</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >O God, we prayed, help us to go with you in your passion. Help us to contemplate the mighty acts which you go through this week, which give us life.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.rockinghamgallery.co.uk/Artist_Pages/Gill/Images/Gill%20thumbnails/17%20jesus%20receiveshis%20cross.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 130px;" src="http://www.rockinghamgallery.co.uk/Artist_Pages/Gill/Images/Gill%20thumbnails/17%20jesus%20receiveshis%20cross.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >We need to enter Holy Week and Passiontide as participants, not just as outside observers or curiosity seekers. We are called to participate in Christ's death and rising to life again. We can understand the story of the passion because it draws on experiences from our own lives.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >Each of us is in some way one of the disciples who fall asleep even as Jesus has asked us to come pray with him. We can find ourselves in one of the twelve -- Peter, perhaps, full of bravado, or Judas, ready to betray Jesus with the best of intentions. In each of us there are chief priests and elders, righteously upholding certain inflexible standards justifying the status quo, the correct routine. There is Pilate and Barabbas and the women who anointed his body. We can even empathize with the crowd, whose part we played today. We all sang the "glory, laud and honor," and then, before many minutes were through, we shouted, "Crucify him!" and we mocked him by calling him “the Messiah of God, his chosen one.” We walk with Jesus to dark Gethsemane, we betray him, we try him and leave him hanging on the cross. We find the worst of ourselves in the story of the passion.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >We can also find ourselves -- the best of ourselves -- in Christ, Christ who walks to the cross just as a human being who has been betrayed or rejected, just as any human being who knows what it is to suffer and face death. The Christ within me is the part of me that knows what it means to give one’s life for something good, and who knows, that sometimes no matter how good we are, there are those who find their power in violence who will strike me down. The Christ within me believes in love nevertheless, despite of it all and because of everything that has happened. The Christ within me wants to live, has the strength to forgive, to trust, to be healed, to create, to risk building community in a world that wants to tear all those good things down.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.goldmarkart.com/images/art/23/23_1013_m.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 293px; height: 233px;" src="http://www.goldmarkart.com/images/art/23/23_1013_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >This is where the stories of our lives meet the story of Jesus, where what is good in us has been redeemed by the events of this week. Let us follow this story this week for what it truly is: the story of our lives, the story of the redemption of the world, the story of the good news that all the bad things we do, all the people we betray and the deaths we die are ultimately put into place by the triumph of good over evil, of love over betrayal, of community over loneliness, of life over death.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-6681645316615623532010-03-24T08:29:00.002-04:002010-03-24T08:41:36.672-04:00Extravagant, overflowing, abundant love for the poor<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lent 5-C 3/21/2010</span><a style="font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.honeyintherock.com/images/item/alabaster_jar.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 350px;" src="http://www.honeyintherock.com/images/item/alabaster_jar.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Isaiah 43:16-21</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Psalm 125 </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Philippians 3:4b-14</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">John 12:1-8</span><br /><br />A lot of things in the Bible don’t make sense to our ears today. Let’s face it: these stories are at least 2000 years old, and written in a different language in a different part of the world. Of course there are things mentioned in these stories that we won’t understand.<br /><br />For example, last week’s story “the man with two sons” mentioned the slaves that worked for this man, otherwise described as a model of goodness. George, one of our children, took issue with even with the mention of slavery: that’s wrong, he said. Abraham Lincoln outlawed it! The mention of slavery got in the way of his paying attention to the point of the story, which was the abundance and generosity of God. It was hard to explain to him that something as bad as slavery wasn’t really what they meant to say. This institution from 2000 years ago didn’t make sense, and trying to figure out why it was mentioned prevented him from hearing the rest of the story.<br /><br />Let’s look at today’s Gospel. Who knows what “nard” is? When I come across words like that that I don’t know, I start wondering what they mean, trying to figure out what difference “nard” makes, and I stop listening to the rest of the story. So it’s important to ask, “What does this word mean? Why is it here in the Bible?” It might mean nothing to the point of the story, but it might take us deeper into the heart of God.<br /><br />So, what is “nard?” I looked it up, and learned that<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Nard is a shortened word coming from spikenard. Some versions actually say spikenard. In Song of Solomon, 1:12, the bride says, ‘while the king sits at his table my spikenard sends forth its fragrance.” It was prepared by steaming the roots of a plant, some sources say a valerian plant from India, others make no mention of which plant. It was probably mixed with olive oil. [Ancient Greek physicians] prescribed it as a sedative and said it was good to help with sleep. Spikenard was prized by Egyptians and imported to the holy land, usually in alabaster jars and was indeed very expensive. The folklore around it was that nard was useful to quell fear and anxiety, improve meditation, and induce restful sleep and pleasant dreams. Jesus could have benefited from all these properties especially at this dinner on this evening.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85NGY4eHZ2NmRk&hl=en#_edn1" target="_self">[i]</a></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:eAXLMQHSg2YwgM:http://www.bible-people.info/Martha1.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 108px;" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:eAXLMQHSg2YwgM:http://www.bible-people.info/Martha1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So when Mary rubs Jesus’ feet with perfume, it’s not just an ordinary act of comfort. It is loaded with symbolism: the extravagant cost of the ointment, its association with healing and rest and meditation, and even, as Jesus mentions, its use in preparing a body for burial.<br /><br />On top of this, this story happens right after Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. This is, as you can imagine, extraordinarily controversial. It is big news, bigger than anything else Jesus has done – bigger than the feeding of thousands with a little bread, bigger than healing the demon-possessed or restoring sight to the blind. It is so big, if we read the next few verses after the end of today’s gospel, that this is it. This is the trigger, the flash point, that turns the anger and resentment of the religious authorities against Jesus from mere grumbling to action. Right before what we read today, in chapter 11, verse 49, John quotes the high priest, Caiaphas, yelling at the rest of the religious council, “You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” This is it, they are saying. No more. This is too dangerous, the Romans will crush us all if this </span> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-size:130%;" >gets out of hand. Kill Jesus. Kill Lazarus. Get rid of them all.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/van-gogh-the-raising-of-lazarus-1890.jpg?w=592"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 387px; height: 290px;" src="http://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/van-gogh-the-raising-of-lazarus-1890.jpg?w=592" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></div> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-size:130%;" >The focus here is on Jesus and his friends. Mary, a disciple whom Jesus loved and taught, sister of Lazarus, spends a nearly unimaginable amount of money to anoint his feet with perfume. She does this out of love and devotion and gratitude, and she recognizes him as the messiah, and Jesus understands this. He also sees more in her act. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, understands that this growing confrontation with authorities will take him to his death, and in that death, God’s glory will be fully revealed. Jesus understands this, and so sees Mary’s loving devotion as a foreshadowing of his burial. Indeed, he will copy Mary’s act in a few days, when he himself washes the feet of his disciples. There, too, they protest. They don’t understand what he is doing, or saying, about the revealing of the glory of God.<br /><br />The Gospel of John is all about who gets it and who doesn’t, about who sees the light and who continues to dwell in darkness. Mary gets it. Judas doesn’t. Judas here is portrayed as greedy, as a thief, as someone who hides behind a concern for the poor – something which Jesus then exposes as a false concern. Jesus defends Mary’s actions. “The poor you will always have with you,” he says.<br /><br />Jesus in his very person identifies with the poor, is among the poor, is one of the poor. We have been reading all these stories this Lent of Jesus turning everything upside down, of the poor exalted and the rich cast down, of welcome without limits and love without exceptions. Many people, including the poor, including Judas, think that what Jesus has been doing is merely righting wrongs, being fair, setting the record straight. They want Jesus to win! But this is more than just feeding bread to the hungry, as important as that is. This is about the reversal of a whole world caught in the thrall of greed and death, caught in cost-accounting and tallying up, caught in fear of power and power over the fearful. Mary, who has been watching carefully and listening intently and who has been stunned to see her brother rise from his tomb and walk, gets it, and that is what the anointing is about: overflowing, extravagant, abundant, profligate, fragrant gratitude and love and devotion. This is not about trading all that money for food for the poor. This is about giving all that extravagant, overflowing, abundant love to the poor, about hope for a world in which the feet of the poor are anointed, just as Jesus will soon wash the feet of his disciples, every one of them as poor as he.<br /><br />After this story in today’s Gospel, Jesus begins to walk the way of the cross. The events leading up to Palm Sunday, to the Last Supper, to Jesus’ betrayal and death are set in motion. The holy drama begins.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85NGY4eHZ2NmRk&hl=en#_ednref1" target="_self">[i]</a> Camille Hegg, in <a href="http://feministheology.blogspot.com/2010/03/lent-5c.html">http://feministheology.blogspot.com/2010/03/lent-5c.html</a></span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-18388473408438355902010-03-15T11:31:00.003-04:002010-03-15T11:42:00.944-04:00Radical Welcome and Embrace: the story of a man with two sons<span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Lent 4-C March 14, 2010<br />St. Paul's Church Annual Meeting</span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3352646512_3127845fd4_o.gif"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 263px; height: 380px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3352646512_3127845fd4_o.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Joshua 5:9-12</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"> Psalm 32<br />2 Corinthians 5:17-21</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"> Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">A parishioner came into the office the other day to rant. That in itself is not such an unusual thing around here, and I have to say the subject of his rant was not all that unusual, either. It was health care, specifically the limitations of MassHealth. The parishioner’s brother had lost his job, and so lost his health insurance. He has a medical condition that needs treatment, and no, he does not want to run up a large emergency room bill that he cannot pay, especially when this condition can be treated more effectively by a doctor, in office visits. The brother makes too much money now, in the lower-wage job he found after he was laid off, to qualify for MassHealth, and before he could find any insurance he could afford, the state fined him for not having health insurance. “Here’s somebody trying to do everything right,” the parishioner ranted, “and still he gets screwed.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Sound familiar?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">If you live in a world where rules make sense, indeed, where the rules are based on what works for you, then, hey. Those are the rules. You don’t have health insurance? You have to pay a fine. You make too much money to qualify for government-funded health care? Then you have to pay for health insurance on your own. You can’t find anything you can afford? Well, then you have to pay a fine. Those are the rules. We are trying to make health care available to everyone but we’re just not there yet. You are one of those unfortunate few who fall through the cracks. Tough, yes, but those are the rules.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is the world of the older brother in today’s gospel story. The rules are fair. I play by the rules, you play by the rules. If you screw up, wander off to play with prostitutes and end up feeding pigs, well, that’s regrettable, yes. On this farm, we work hard. We follow the rules. You can get back in, be treated well and housed and fed, but you have to play by the rules. Take a number, sit in that chair, fill out this form, provide documentation and your social security number, and wait.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We live in a world run by the older brother. And if that world makes sense to us, we will always be confused by God. Of all the people I have encountered in thirty years of ministry, more of them come to me complaining about this story than about any other of Jesus’ parables. God is just wrong here, they say. The elder brother is right.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is not the story of the Prodigal Son, the name usually given to it. This is not the story of the older brother. This is the story of a man with two sons, two sons he loves equally and profligately, two sons with whom he shares everything. One son stays at home, works hard, lives well. The other son wanders off, does bad things, feels bad, needs help. He comes crawling home, afraid that he will be punished for breaking the rules he knew all too well, hoping that his father will forgive him enough to let him live at least the minimally secure life of one of his laborers. And what does the father do? This is the story of a man with two sons, two sons he loves equally and profligately, two sons with whom he shares everything. Everything. The return of this lost son is a cause for rejoicing. Throw a party! There is more than enough to go around.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">If we act like the older brother, we will never understand this story. We will always be confused by God. We will always resent that bum who got away with it. And we will never understand what it means when that offer of abundance comes our way. The day will come when on some level we have screwed up, made a mistake, or tried to do everything right and still failed, and then someone, standing in for God as that benevolent father did in the story, will say to us, come on in! Great to see you! Now that you’re here, we can have a party! We won’t know what to do</span> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">when we’re offered something we don’t deserve, and we will never think we are worthy of a life of abundance and security and comfort.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">It’s not that rules are wrong, or that the life the older brother lived was ungodly. Perhaps now, the younger brother will realize that squandering his life and living among pigs is not such a good thing to do, either, and that life on the farm has its benefits. The problem is that for both of them – and this is so true for all of us – the rules were the goal, and life was a zero sum game.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">God holds out a different vision, a different hope for the lives of the people he created and loves. There is enough to go around. You can have a home. You can come in out of the rain.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Today is the Annual Meeting of this church. We will discuss some serious and important things, and I hope all of you will stay and participate in the discussion. Taking part in the leadership of even this small a congregation is something everyone can do, and each person’s thoughts and contributions are needed. There is a lot to do, and you – each of you – can help.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">However, if you cannot stay, or you don’t want to stay, or all you can muster in the way of participation in the life of this congregation is to come to church, that is ok. If you are headed down to lunch after this, fine. If you have to get home and take care of your family, or go to work, fine. This is your church home, and you are welcome to receive all that is offered at God’s table. We’ll see you on Wednesday, we’ll see you next week. Be well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">You may not want to hear all the details and reports and discussions that will follow this service, but at least I want you to know a few things.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is an Episcopal church. That means we are headed by a bishop, and our bishop’s office is in Boston. This is a mission parish, and that means the bishop takes direct responsibility for us, and especially for where we are headed. I am here on behalf of the bishop, and this is what the bishop wants us to do in the coming year, dividing our time and our goals into three areas.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">First, this tiny worshiping congregation. We will continue our Sunday and Wednesday services, reaching out to neighbors and friends. We will provide pastoral care and comfort to all who come through our doors. The bishop wants us to work with other local Christian groups to offer new worship services at different times, with different kinds of music or styles of gathering.<br /><br /></span></span></li><li><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Second, the PleasantGreen Project. This is our vision for neighborhood improvement and community revitalization, including better and more affordable places to live. We want to improve this area where we live and work and worship, to make it safer and more attractive, and to bring the arts, and maybe some job training and opportunities for personal enrichment to people who live in our neighborhood. </span></span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Third, the bishop wants us to deepen and expand our outreach to people in need: to the homeless, the underemployed, the people who come to eat lunch and to volunteer at the Table – </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">in short, to be the church IN this place and OF this neighborhood, a place where all of us, the halt, the lame, and the blind, </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">the lost, the last, the littlest and the least, can find a home. We frequently pray, “What is God calling us to do and to be in this pl</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S55TLARXM-I/AAAAAAAAAzA/czUk8xNBHJA/s1600-h/rembrandt-return-of-the-prodigal-son.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K5V243lAC3w/S55TLARXM-I/AAAAAAAAAzA/czUk8xNBHJA/s320/rembrandt-return-of-the-prodigal-son.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448884047681369058" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">ace?” What our bishop, as our spiritual leader and guide, has discerned for us is that this deep and open welcome to all who walk by is our calling. This is what it means to be St. Paul’s Church in Brockton, Massachusetts, in this second decade of the 21st century.</span></span></li></ul><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is not the church for everybody – obviously!! If it were, our pews would be filled!! This is not a church that can offer Sunday school for all grade levels, or a youth group, or a choir, in the ways that typical, suburban churches do, but it is a church that offers all of us, children and adults, the opportunity to experience that same kind of radical welcome and embrace that the fat</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">her in today’s gospel story offered to his two sons. This is the place to celebrate and rejoice, for the dead come to life, and the lost are found.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952978674060504731.post-84554931938692088092010-03-13T13:11:00.002-05:002010-03-13T13:18:09.552-05:00Bearing fruit, pruning and digging<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:vPxB-wVBfmyHKM:http://www.barretstown.org/images/main/Secret_Garden.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 168px; height: 125px;" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:vPxB-wVBfmyHKM:http://www.barretstown.org/images/main/Secret_Garden.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">Lent 3-C March 7, 2010<br />Exodus 3:1-15</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"> Ps. 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"> Luke 13:1-9</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> Weren’t we lured outside yesterday by the sunny skies and warm temperatures? I don’t know about you, but growing up in the north here, I feel that experiencing such nice weather so early in the spring – or late in the winter – seems like a trick, a tease. Was this fear, that such a spring might be too good to be true, in the mind of the poet T.S. Eliot</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85MWR2eHJuYmcy&hl=en#_edn1" target="_self">[i]</a></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> when he wrote:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Memory and desire, stirring </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Dull roots with spring rain.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Aren’t we northerners to a certain extent much more comfortable when we can hunker down in our winter woolies? Like Eliot wrote:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Winter kept us warm, covering </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Earth in forgetful snow, feeding </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A little life with dried tubers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Come on, now: doesn’t a part of us feel that all the little life we will ever get consists of those dried tubers?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Some of you, thankfully, grew up in more southern climes, closer to the parts of the globe where the sun shines more reliably than it does around here, where the temperatures are warmer, and you don’t have to wear winter woolies. Perhaps that gives you more of a sense of optimism during this season of Lent – the word “Lent” after all comes from the English word “to lengthen.” This is the season when the days lengthen. The earth DOES turn. The summer WILL come, even if we, steeped in fear and disappointment, regard such days as yesterday’s mid-March sunshine as a cruel interlude between blizzards.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">So what did you think of yesterday’s sunshine?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">And what do you think of today’s gospel? Is Jesus saying we deserve to perish, like that fig tree that bears no fruit? Should we be cut down, lest we waste the soil in which we are planted? Or is Jesus the wise gardener, prudently pruning and digging, so we, the potentially fruit-full fig tree can flourish?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">However you read it, these words of Jesus are a challenge. Think of what that might mean in your own life: where in your own life are you not bearing fruit? Where are the twigs that need to be trimmed, the dead branches that need to be lopped off? Perhaps the discipline of the Twelve Steps would be good for all of us as we think about what Jesus says, like that 4th step of “a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” A scary prospect if we really took it seriously. What parts of your life are not bearing fruit? Do you need to dig around your roots a little bit, to see if things will come up better next year?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, usually a source of beautiful spiritual guidance, is a little tough to read this morning, too. He writes of a bunch of people perishing because they aren’t good enough – yikes! – and then listen again to these words of comfort:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">My experience has been that when I am in the middle of such a period of testing, I do not quite know if that is true. It seems at those moments that God is giving me far more than I can handle, and that even if I have the strength to endure, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing it very well at all.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Since Jesus has brought up the image of the fig tree, let’s think a little bit more about gardening. At this time of the year, straightening out a garden does seem like one of those tests that God has given me that are too much to handle. The amount of work to clean up the detritus of winter seems endless, the soil is muddy, and ravages of ice and snow and salt have taken their toll. But, like yesterday’s sunny day, isn’t there always hope in a garden?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">I was reminded yesterday</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85MWR2eHJuYmcy&hl=en#_edn2" target="_self">[ii]</a></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> of an old novel, The Secret Garden. In this story,</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">… two sickly and spoiled children, Mary and Colin … find a hidden garden neglected and overgrown. The garden is discovered in the Lenten springtime: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">When Mary found this garden it looked quite dead … Then something began pushing things up out of the soil and making things out of nothing. One day things weren't there and another they were.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The work of pruning and digging lead Mary and Colin out of their sickly loneliness into health, and the miracle of life springing out of the chaos and mud of the hidden garden leads them to feelings they never had before. In the novel, a friend starts to sing:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Praise God from whom all blessings flow, </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Praise Him all creatures here below, </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Colin, the little boy in the book, has never been to church, has never heard those words. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic;">It is a very nice song, [he says.] I like it. Perhaps it means just what I mean when I want to shout out that I am thankful to the Magic.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Last week I said, “Let go and let God.” That’s one of those things that’s as hard to hear as “God won’t give you more than you can handle” or “For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and still I find none. Cut it down!”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">At times like that, perhaps the most we can do is to be thankful to the Magic, as we dig around the roots of our lives, in hope that with that care and attention we will, someday, bear the fruit God wants us to bear. At times like that, perhaps all we can do is sing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85MWR2eHJuYmcy&hl=en#_ednref1" target="_self">[i]</a></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> The Wasteland</span><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVlodFqWyUj3ZGRoN2RiYl85MWR2eHJuYmcy&hl=en#_ednref2" target="_self">[ii]</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20100301JJ.shtml">http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20100301JJ.shtml</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1