Sermons | Grace Episcopal Church (Sheldon, VT)

Advent 1 Year C RCL November 29, 2015

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Beth Crane

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Happy New Year! Advent is the New Year in the Church calendar. We change from lectionary year B to year C. Our vestments go from the green of ordinary time to the royal purple which is so appropriate as we prepare to welcome our King.

Advent is a season in which we look back to the first coming of our Lord as a baby in Bethlehem, We also look forward to his Second Coming, when he will bring in his shalom, his kingdom, and restore the creation to the harmony, justice, peace, love, and wholeness which he has always intended. And there is also a third aspect to the Advent season because we realize that our Lord is constantly breaking in to this world with his grace and love, and that we are called to be open to those moments and to welcome him into our lives.

Our first reading is from the prophet Jeremiah. His ministry took place in very difficult times. This short reading is a powerful expression of hope, God is going to provide a new leader from the line of David, and this leader is going to bring in a kingdom of justice and righteousness. As Christians, we immediately think of our Lord and his Kingdom.

Our epistle is from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. This reading gives us some hints of the key things we should be thinking about as we prepare for our Lord to come into our lives on a deeper level. Paul loves these people. He founded this community of faith and he has been trying to get back to see them, but that has not happened, This is his greatest hope—to visit them. Meanwhile, he has been praying for them and rooting for them.

Paul prays that God will let him visit these beloved people. Secondly, he prays that God will increase their love for each other and for everyone. Thirdly, Paul prays that God will “strengthen [their] hearts in holiness.” Paul’s love for these wonderful people leaps out of the page. Points two and three are good prayers for us as well. May God increase our love for each other and for all people. May God strengthen us in holiness. In other words, may God help us to become more and more like Christ.

This past week, on November 25, we celebrated James Otis Sargent Huntington, the founder of the Order of the Holy Cross, the first indigenous American monastic order for men. The order began in New York, then moved to Maryland and then, in 1902 moved to West Park, New York, on the shores of the Hudson River, the location of their mother house. Huntington, who spent many years ministering to poor immigrants on the Lower East Side of New York, wrote, “Holiness is the brightness of divine love, and love is never idle; it must accomplish great things.”

Our gospel reading for today is another example of apocalyptic literature, like the Book of Revelation. “Apocalypse” means “revelation.” Usually apocalyptic writings describe how God is going to come and conquer all evil and set up a kingdom of peace and harmony. In all three lectionary years, the gospels for the first Sunday in Advent are apocalyptic writings. In year C we have Luke, in year A, Matthew, and in year B, Mark.

The coming of our Lord is a cosmic event. There is distress among nations. There are earthquakes and tsunamis. There is total upheaval. We could very well look at our own time and say to ourselves, “Well, all the signs of the apocalypse are going on right now.” There are many books and films that dwell on that theme. The “left behind” books are one example, and there are many others.

But those examples are not scriptural. They are not in harmony with Christian teachings, and they are not where Jesus is calling us to put our attention and our energy.

Every age has had many signs of upheaval. We certainly have distress between nations. We have wars and rumors of wars. We have many signs of upheaval. We must call upon God for wisdom and guidance in dealing with the many issues that face us and our world.

Whenever he talks about the turmoil of his return, Jesus tells us not to use up our time and energy trying to figure out when he will come back to us. He also tells us not to consume our lives in fear.

In today’s gospel, our Lord tells us not to waste our time getting drunk and not to let ourselves be weighed down by the worries of this life. Whenever he talks about this topic, he tells us to be prepared. He calls us to be ready to welcome him.

Our Lord says, “Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

As we observe our world, we can see a huge chasm between the way God wants the world to be and the way it is. We can understand what an upheaval it will take in order for our Lord to restore the creation to the way he envisioned it to be. That is what the powerful and sometimes scary imagery of apocalyptic literature is about. War will cease. Everyone will have enough to eat and drink. Everyone will have a place to live and clothing to keep them warm and decent medical care and useful work to do. Everything in the creation will be for building up and not for destroying. Everything will be about love and not hate.

As we look back to his birth in a little out of the way place ruled by a an efficient and ruthless empire; as we look ahead to his coming to bring in his shalom; let us also be alert to those moments when his loving, strengthening, and transforming presence breaks into the moments of our lives, and let us do whatever we can to help him build his shalom. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Advent, James Otis Sargent Huntington, Jeremiah 33, Order of the Holy Cross | Leave a comment »

Christ the King Year B November 22, 2015

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Beth Crane

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19)
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the day when the season of Pentecost comes to an end and we prepare to begin the season of Advent. This week, we will celebrate Thanksgiving.

Our opening reading describes King David, and all great leaders in these powerful and beautiful words: “One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.” David is the shepherd-king. Though he had flaws, the people of his kingdom had far better lives and a more just society than did the people in surrounding cultures. Our Lord, the Good Shepherd, is descended from the House of David.

Our second reading is from one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Revelation, singular, not Revelations. One of the ways in which this book is misinterpreted is to think that it was written to foretell the future. This book is not to be applied to today or to any future time or events.

Bruce Metzger, the scholarly and careful editor of The New Annotated Oxford Bible, writes, “…it is probable that the author, whose name is John, put the book in its present form toward the close of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (A,D, 81-96. It was then that Domitian began to demand that his subjects address him as “Lord and God” and worship his image. For refusing to do so, many Christians were put to death. Others, like John, were exiled, and all were threatened. One reason for the author’s couching his teaching in mysterious figures and extraordinary metaphors was to prevent the imperial police from recognizing that this book is a trumpet call to the persecuted, assuring them that, despite the worst that the Roman Empire could do, God reigns supreme, and Christ, who died and is alive forevermore, has the power to overcome all evil.”

To summarize, this book was written in code, and the imagery of evil refers to the Roman Empire.

The book opens with a prayer of praise to God and Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who will come to complete the creation, restore the creation to wholeness, and bring in his reign, his shalom of peace and harmony.

In our gospel, we meet our King, and he is on the way to the cross. He is being interrogated by Pilate. “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asks. Jesus asks him whether this is Pilate’s own question, or whether he is asking because those above him told him to ask. In other words, Jesus is questioning Pilate’s authority. Pilate replies scornfully, “I am not a Jew, am I?” He says that Jesus’ own people have handed Jesus over as a criminal.

Finally, Jesus makes a statement: “My kingdom is not from this world.” In the gospel for this day from Year A, he describes the nature of his kingdom. He tells us that when we feed the hungry or give water to the thirsty or welcome the stranger, we are feeding him and welcoming him.

His is a kingdom built on concern for others. He calls us to care for our brothers and sisters. Our Lord says to Pilate, “Every one who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The truth is that God wants us to love each other. God is love, God is not hate or worldly power. God is not the conquering of empire. God is not the acquisition of power or possessions or lordship over others as the Emperor Domitian and so many other world rulers have thought.

When Jesus says this wondrous thing, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” he is calling us, his faithful flock, to follow him and to help him to build his shalom.

What does this mean for us today? How can we best follow our King? Well, it strikes me that these times are not very different from the times of John and the times of Domitian. Paris and Mali have been attacked. Christians are being persecuted.

When Jesus is interrogated by Pilate, our Lord does not operate from a place of fear. Pilate, the representative of the world’s greatest empire of that time, is grilling Jesus, and our Lord never loses balance. He questions Pilate’s authority, and well he might, because Pilate is part of an oppressive power structure that wants to preserve its control at all costs.

But Jesus’ power goes so far beyond anything that Pilate or Domitian or anyone else could ever muster. Jesus has already conquered evil in all its forms. He has conquered death itself. His kingdom is not from this world. It is so much larger and full of light and love that it would blind someone like Pilate.

Jesus tells Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Everyone who belongs to his risen Body, everyone who responds to his call to care for our brothers and sisters, everyone who is knit together into the risen body of his love and his new life, listens to his voice.

As we listen to his voice, he tells us not to be afraid. He tells us not to operate from a place of fear. He calls us to center ourselves in him. He calls us to seek his kingdom and to live from the values of his kingdom. He calls us to be strong in his strength, and he calls us to look at the world and at other people with his eyes and his heart.

Our King is the direct opposite of Pilate and all the Caesars and Domitians and tyrants of this world. He calls us to seek first his kingdom. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: 2 Samuel 23, Alpha and Omega, psalm 132, Pslam 132, Thanksgiving, The New Anotated Oxford Bible | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 25 Proper 28B RCL November 15, 2015

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Beth Crane

1 Samuel 1:4-20
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (Hannah’s Song)
Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25
Mark 13:1-8

As our first reading begins, all is not well with the people of God. The preceding book the Book of Judges, ends with this statement: “In those days there was no king in Israel. All the people did what was right in their own eyes.” The sons of the priest, Eli, the religious leader of the people, are corrupt, and there is moral slippage everywhere.

Something is about to happen. The people of God are on a threshold. God is about to give them a great gift, and that gift is given to Hannah.

In those days, a woman’s worth was based on her ability to bear children, especially male children. Hannah is barren, and Peninnah never lets her forget it. Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, go to the temple at Shiloh to worship, and Hannah reaches the end of her rope. She goes into the temple to pray to God, and the floodgates let loose.

She is sobbing and praying soundlessly. The priest, Eli, at first thinks she is drunk, but, when he confronts her, she explains her deep grief, and Eli understands and blesses her.

Hannah becomes pregnant. In those times, this would be considered a miracle. Samuel, one of the great priests and prophets of God’s people, is born. So often, just when we need it, God gives us a great gift.

In our gospel for today, the disciples are awed by the size of the massive temple in Jerusalem. Indeed, it was huge and impressive. But Jesus tells them the temple is going to be destroyed, and, indeed, that great building was leveled by the Romans in 70 A. D.

Then Jesus talks about birth pangs and says false messiahs will come and that there are going to be wars and earthquakes and famines. The disciples want to know when this will happen, but Jesus just talks about birth pangs. In other places, he clearly tells us not to worry about the signs, just be ready for him to come and complete his kingdom.

The kingdom, the shalom of Christ is growing. As it grows, the old empires of power and wealth and oppression will be overthrown. In her talks at convention, the Rev. Gay Jennings, the President of the House of Deputies at General Convention, spoke about going over new thresholds and being open to new possibilities as Jesus brings in his kingdom.

When King Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 314, Christianity became the state religion. Over the centuries, Christianity became part of the empire, the seat of power in the world. Gay Jennings reminded us that, until very recently, the majority of our presidents, congress persons, judges, and other leaders were Episcopalians.

That is no longer true. We are no longer a part of the empire, God is doing a new thing, just as God did in giving Hannah the gift of Samuel, the leader who would lead the people back to the right path.

God is always with us to give us the gifts we need when we arrive at scary points in our individual and corporate life. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is out ahead of the flock, leading and guiding us. As his shalom comes in, there will be birth pangs. In the midst of this turmoil, we are called to be rooted and grounded in our Lord and to follow where he leads.

Today, we will gather at Frank and Priscilla’s for our harvest dinner. We are entering the season of thanksgiving, the time when we give to the United Thank Offering our gift, which represents all the times in the past year when we have given thanks to God for God’s infinite gifts to us.

It is also the time when we will be thinking about our pledge to Grace Church, which is also a return of a worthy portion of the time, talent, and treasure God has given us.

When we give to UTO, they take those offerings and help people all over the world. Our neighbors at St, Luke’s, Alburgh, have a composting toilet which they installed with the help of a grant from UTO. Over the years, over three hundred thousand dollars in UTO grants have been given to folks in Vermont.

We will be doing our UTO ingathering until the end of November, and, if you need us to wait into December so that you can give your offering, please let me know. We will need to have our pledges in so that we can make the budget for 2016, something we will be doing in December.

It is all about gratitude. Everything we have comes from God. Our time, talent. and treasure are not our own. They are gifts from God, so we return a portion in thanksgiving.

Our psalm for this morning, Hannah’s Song, captures the attitude of gratitude. She was deeply grateful for the gift of Samuel, and she gave him to God so that the people could have the leader they needed,

Hannah’s song is much like the song of another grateful mother, Mary, who sang the Magnificat. She already knew that her son was not her own, that he had come to be the Savior of the world, but she walked with him every step of the way with incredible courage and resilience.

Resilience is another thing we talked about at convention. We are called to be a thankful and resilient people, ready to cross new thresholds, ready to be part of the birth of our Lord’s kingdom.

May we pray and reflect on all the reasons we have to be thankful. May we thank God with all our hearts.

I thank God for each and every one of you, and for our life together in Christ. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: 1 Samuel, Hannah, Pentecost 24 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 24 Proper 27B RCL November 11, 2012

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Beth Crane

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12: 38-44

Once again, we are following our plan of placing our attention on today’s reading from Mark’s gospel.

Jesus is teaching in the temple. This passage that we read today is his last public teaching in Mark’s gospel. From here on until his death, his teachings will be for the disciples only.

In the temple are all kinds of people from all walks of life. Some of the people are genuinely curious about what Jesus has to say. Others are literally spying on him trying to collect evidence against him.

Jesus begins by telling the people to beware of the scribes, that is, the teachers of the law. His attack is scathing. The scribes like to walk about in flowing robes. These garments are expensive, and, if you wear a long elaborate robe, your clothing makes it clear that you do not do hard work or manual labor, You can’t move quickly. You can’t really be active. So even what they wear makes it clear that the scribes are privileged. They don’t get their hands dirty. They don’t break a sweat.

Their clothing is in itself a sign that they are an honored group.

They liked to be greeted and honored in the marketplace. They sat in the seats of honor in the synagogue and in the banquet hall. The scribes are powerful; they are privileged people, they say long prayers, and yet, Jesus says, they “devour widows’ houses.” They are hypocrites. They don’t practice what they teach. They talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk.

What does it mean that they devour the houses of widows? Scholars tell us that, in Jesus’ time, and in that culture, widows were at the bottom of the social scale. Women had no social standing aside from their husbands. When their husbands died, they lost their source of protection and their source of financial support. Often a widow would, with a trusting heart, ask a scribe to help her handle her finances. What Jesus is saying is that often the scribe would take the widow’s money for himself. So, here we have a member of the congregation trusting a leader, a teacher of the law, with her financial resources, and the teacher misusing the power given to him and cheating the woman out of everything she has. This is a serious misuse of power and privilege.

Herbert O’Driscoll writes, “Here Jesus speaks harshly of the scribes. He notes their assumed superiority, their grasping for honours and prominence, and he dismisses their religious acts as posturing and hypocrisy. He does not attack the spirituality of Judaism, but he is highly critical of what the organized form of it had become. To Jesus it seemed as if the whole religious system that centered in the Temple had become cynical, self-serving, even rapacious. There is always a danger that a great religion will descend to this state. Our Lord’s words and actions, not to speak of his death and resurrection, will themselves judge the church to the end of time, calling it to be constantly aware of the temptation to be self-serving and self-congratulatory.”

Now the scene shifts. Jesus moves to the part of the Temple where the collection boxes were located. William Barclay tells us that there were thirteen collecting boxes, one for corn, one for wine, one for oil, and so on, collections for items to be used in the sacrifices at the Temple. The collection boxes were in the shape of inverted trumpets, with the narrow end at the top. Once you had put a coin into the collection, you could not get it out, and no one could steal the collection.

A widow comes along. She is totally vulnerable in the society. She has nothing. She throws in two coins, known as lepta. One coin was known as a lepton, meaning literally, a thin one. This is the thinnest, the smallest coin.

Other people have thrown in much more. But they have a great deal of money left. This woman has thrown in very little, but she has very little money.

The woman is vulnerable, She has no power in that society. When she throws those two lepta into the collection box, I think she feels that she is giving them to God. She is taking a courageous action, a leap of faith. It is clean and clear and sincere.

William Barclay writes, “We may feel that we have not much in the way of material gifts or personal gifts to give to Christ, but, if we put all that we have and all that we are at his disposal. He can do things with it and with us that are beyond our imaginings.”

Though we are focusing on the gospel, let’s look at our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures for a moment. There was a famine in Judah and Naomi went to Moab with her husband and two sons. Her sons married two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Naomi’s husband and sons died. All three women became widows. Hearing that the famine in Judah had ended, Naomi decided to go back home. Out of love and faithfulness, Ruth went with her, Once she was back at home, Naomi’s courage increased and she made a decision to secure protection for Ruth by having her marry Boaz, her relative, an honored and honorable man. Their son, Obed, was the grandfather of David, and from that family came Jesus.

The courage and faith of good, ordinary people like us can bear great fruit. Trusting in God is everything. That’s what these stories are about. Ordinary people who don’t have a lot, but who have faith and trust and hope in God and who seek and do God’s will every day of their lives—people like this widow—are heroes of the faith.

Day by day, dear Lord, three things of thee we pray: to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.

Amen

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Herbert O'Driscoll, Psalm 127, Ruth 3, William Barclay | Leave a comment »

All Saints’ Day Year B RCL November 1, 2015

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Beth Crane

Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

This morning, we celebrate the feast of All Saints. We remember all of the faithful people who have gone before us, all who are here now, and all who will come after us. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, all the members of the Body of Christ who are knit together in our common faith. The saints give us deep inspiration. They have run the race before us, and we can be spiritual athletes as they were.

Our first two readings give us an idea of what heaven is like. Our reading from the Book of Revelation says that, in heaven, God will be with us and will wipe every tear from our eyes. Heaven is a place where God’s joy and peace are completely present. Heaven is a place of safety. God’s reign of peace and protection is complete.

My beloved mentor, David Brown, used to say, “Heaven is the best time we have ever had with the best friends we have ever had.” He used to talk about “the great fish-fry in heaven.” In other words, when we are in the presence of God and the angels, and all the saints, there is no mourning, only peace and joy. I think there is a great deal of laughter in heaven.

When we think of the Communion of Saints, that wonderful gathering of all the members of the Body of Christ, we remember our favorite saints, those who have inspired us, those whose example we have tried to follow. For example, my birthday is August 1 and the saint for that day in Holy Women, Holy Men, is Joseph of Arimathea, who had the courage to go to the authorities and ask permission to take Jesus’ body down off the cross and bury it in his own tomb. I am inspired by Joseph’s faith and courage, and I ask God to increase my faith and courage. My other birthday saint is Ethelwold, a tenth century monk who became Bishop of Winchester. He founded monasteries, translated books into English, and was a reformer, trying to bring the monasteries and his diocese into the highest levels of prayer and community life. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints notes, “St. Ethelwold…was merciless to the slack, full of sympathy for the good-willed and the unfortunate….”

Hilda of Whitby, Hildegarde of Bingen, Patrick, Francis of Assisi, and my name saint, John the Evangelist, are also favorites.

I share this by way of encouraging all of us to think about our favorite saints. Please let me know yours.

As another of my mentors, Al Smith, long time rector of St. James, Essex Junction, used to say, “There are capital S saints and small s saints.” The much-loved hymn, “I sing a song of the saints of God,” beautifully reflects that fact. In the early Church, letters were addressed to the saints in Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, and other places, We are all small s saints because we are members of the Body of Christ, each offering our God-given gifts to build the kingdom, the shalom of God.

The tune we use for this hymn was written by John Henry Hopkins, the grandson of our first bishop, who was also named John Henry Hopkins. As we look in our hymnals on page 293, we note that the tune is called Grand Isle, where the Hopkins family home is located. Services are still held there each summer.

In today’s gospel, we read the powerful story of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus waits several days before he goes to Bethany. Lazarus is clearly and definitely dead. Mary tells Jesus she wishes he had come sooner so that he could have saved Lazarus. Martha points out that there is going to be a stench. Jesus cries at the death of his friend. Then Jesus calls Lazarus to life, and his beloved friend walks out of that dark tomb.

Perhaps that is the greatest gift we are offered as members of the Body of Christ and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. We don’t have to be afraid of anything, even death. Jesus has the power to call us into new life. Death has no more dominion over us.

This week, we have our Grace Church timeline hanging on the wall. This is a work in progress. It is designed to give us a sense of the long life of the community of faith lasting almost two hundred years. Up until the nineteen-forties, we have the guidance of a history written by Frederika Northrop Sargent. We also have a history by Laura Crane. Dates from those two histories have been put on the timeline.

Frederika notes that sometime in the nineteen-forties, Grace was yoked with Holy Trinity, Swanton. Services continued. Grace Church never closed. One of our great saints, A J. “Jack” Soule, was Senior Warden for many years, and he made sure that Grace remained open. But things did quiet down considerably between the forties and the eighties.

In the 1980s, what Andy has called the “Grace Renaissance” began. Extensive and careful work was done on the building. The number of services increased, and there were other activities. A group of faithful small s saints , inspired by God’s grace and Vermont grit, shepherded this rebirth: Hoddie and Charlotte, Laura, Harriet, Geraldine, Gertrude, Ruth, and Gwen were our elder generation at that time. Sue, who has gone before us, and Andy used to alternate holding the office of Senior Warden and Treasurer and everything else.

Grace has a strong history of service to those near and far, inclusiveness, accessibility, care for God’s creation, hospitality, concern for those at the margins and those who are most vulnerable, love of music, faithful worship, and compassionate community are some of the hallmarks of Grace Church.

The timeline is designed so that anyone can add a date or something you feel is important. Please feel free to make additions.

May we always sing a song of the saints of God, and may we thank God for all the saints who have gone before us and will come after us.

Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: David Brown, Ethelwold, the Communion of Saints, Wisdom 3 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 22 Proper 25B RCL October 25, 2015

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Beth Crane

Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22)
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

As we think about our opening reading, we remember that Job has lost everything. Yet he still has not lost his faith. He wants to see God and plead his case. Last week he had his encounter with God, and God asked Job and us, some searching questions: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind?”

Like most of us, Job has had an encounter with the transcendent God, the God who is beyond our imagining. Job has come to realize that he will never be able to understand God, because God is much bigger than we humans are, and God is more powerful than we humans are. Job apologizes to God for his presumption. And God restores everything Job has lost, and gives Job even more than the abundance he already had.

When we go through those tough times, those times when God seems so far away, those times when everything seems dark and there is no hope to be found, times when we think we will never be able to find the light in the darkness, times when we lose things that are precious to us, and yet we keep searching for God, we hang on to whatever threads of faith we can find. We ask the prayers and support of friends—and most of us have much more helpful friends than Job’s so-called friends who blamed him for his plight—sometimes suddenly, sometimes gradually, the darkness lifts and our lives come back together again. And often our faith grows stronger after such times of struggle. Often, we grow stronger having walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Many times, when we have an experience like that, we come to a deeper realization that God was with us all the time.

In our gospel for today, we meet the blind man Bartimaeus. He cannot see. But he can hear Jesus and the disciples coming along the road. Bartimaeus shouts,“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” People tell him to be quiet, but he shouts even more loudly. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus stops. Jesus is always listening for our cries for help. “Call him here,” Jesus says.

So the people tell Bartimaeus, “Take heart, he is calling you.” Most of us are not totally blind, but there are many forms of blindness. Sometimes there are things we do not want to see, things we do not want to recognize and accept. They may be things about ourselves or they may be things about others or about situations. But when we call upon our Lord, he hears, and he stops to be with us.

The people tell Bartimaeus, “Take heart, get up, he is calling you.” When we are in a tough situation, and we have been groping along the best we can and we realize we can ask Jesus for help, that is a time when we can truly take heart. We have been muddling along the best we can, and suddenly we realize that Jesus is there to help us.

We can really take heart. Our spirits lift. There is light at the end of the tunnel after all.

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, throws off all protection. He springs up and comes to Jesus. He has heard Jesus’ voice, and, though he is blind, he is able to make a bee-line for that voice.

Then Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” And Bartimaeus asks for his sight. Jesus does not even touch him. “Go, your faith has made you well.” What does Bartimaeus do? He follows Jesus. He becomes a disciple.

Sometimes when we are in blindness, and we have not seen some important things, and, gradually or suddenly, these things become very clear to us, sometimes it can be a shock. Our doctor gives us a dreaded diagnosis, or we see something dark in a situation we had thought was full of light, or someone we had trusted betrays us, or we lose a dear friend. And there Jesus is, asking what he can do for us.

It is so important to remember to ask him for his help.

In our reading from the Book of Job, we encounter the transcendent God, the God who is more powerful than we can imagine. In our gospel, there is God on our level. Jesus has come to be with us. Bartimaeus calls out for mercy, and Jesus has mercy on him and heals his blindness.

As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, our Lord knows what it is to be human. He is fully human and fully divine. He has bridged the gap between the all-powerful God and the human level. He has made it possible for us to meet God as our brother and our savior, to see God face to face, and to ask and receive loving help from God.

This morning, Jesus is asking each of us, “What do you want me to do for you?” He is listening for our answer. He cares about each of us and about all of us together. Let us take some time this week and ask for his help. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Bartimaeus, Hebrews 7, Job 42, Mark 10, Psalm 34 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 20 Proper 23B RCL October 11, 2015

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Beth Crane

Job 23:1-9. 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

In our first reading, we meet Job once again. When the story began, Job was wealthy. He had 7,000 sheep, 1,000 oxen, 500 donkeys, and 3,000 camels. Best of all, he had seven sons and three daughters. In ancient times, a person’s children were his or her future. But things have changed. Raiders have come and taken away all his livestock and killed his servants. A terrible wind has come up and leveled the house where all his children and their families were gathered. His skin is covered with boils from his head to his toes. Once, he was respected. Now, people avoid him.

Except for three so-called friends, who are now telling him that he must have done something awful to deserve all this suffering. They subscribe to the belief common at that time that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. So, if bad things are happening, you must have done something bad.

Job does an honest and searching self-examination. He has always tried to be faithful to God and compassionate to his fellow humans, and, with God’s help, he has pretty much succeeded. It really hurts that his friends dream up a theory that he has been especially mean to poor people who can’t defend themselves. This is simply not true.

Job really wants to talk to God about this, but he cannot find God. Today’s psalm captures the situation perfectly. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When everything is going wrong, we sometimes feel that God has deserted us. Of course, God is right beside us, but, in the dark night of the soul we don’t realize that God is with us. When he cannot find God, Job wants to be swallowed up by the darkness. Most of us know exactly how that feels. Our life is unraveling, and we think that God has abandoned us.

In our gospel, Jesus is setting off on a journey. He is going to Jerusalem. He is going to the cross. A man runs up, kneels before Jesus, and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Scholars tell us that in ancient times, if you flattered someone and he accepted the flattery, that created an obligation. He had to do something for you. Jesus does not accept the flattery. He points out that none is good except God. Jesus goes on to tell the man that he knows all the commandments, and Jesus enumerates them, but he adds one. “You shall not defraud.”

The man said he has kept those commandments all his life. Now, this man has asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. When we inherit something, the inheritance is a gift. There is nothing we can do to earn the gift of God’s love and grace. Perhaps what he is really asking is, what must he do to become a follower of Jesus?

Jesus looks into this man’s eyes and sees right into his heart and soul, as he does with all of us. This man has great wealth, and that wealth has become his identity. The wealth has gotten to the place where it is going to get in the way of his following Jesus. But without the wealth, the man feels he is a nobody. And so Jesus tells the man that he is going to have to sell everything and give the money to the poor.

The man can’t do it. He walks away grieving.

Is our Lord telling you and me that we must sell everything and give the money to the poor? In my opinion, no. When Jesus gives this guidance to this man, that advice is tailored to that man and his situation.

For us, the question is, what is getting between me and Jesus? What is keeping me from giving my whole life to him? If there is something in the way, we need to ask his help in moving it out of the way.

It is true that, compared to the rest of the world, we are wealthy. So many people do not have a place to live; they do not have enough food and water. They do not have clothing. We all know this, and this is why Grace Church recently gave $778.00 to Episcopal Relief and Development. Thank you for your generosity. We are so blessed. We have so much. And we know that we are called to share God’s blessings with others.

Jesus makes it clear that wealth and power can throw us off the track very quickly. He says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Why is he saying this?

We need to remember the context of this gospel passage. Just before this part of the gospel, he took children into his arms and he told us that we need to become like children. We need to trust God. We need to be open to God’s love grace, and guidance.

When we humans accumulate great wealth and power, it is easy for us to forget about God. It is easy for us to think that we are God. After all, I can do this and buy this. With huge amounts of money, humans get a great deal of power in this culture, and it is easy to forget God. With great wealth, it is difficult to trust in God as a little child.

We have all had times in our lives when we really needed God’s help, and sometimes we may have felt that God has left us. I hope those times are few and far between for you. Jesus knows how that feels. He felt that on the cross. We have a great high priest who knows how that feels, He knows how everything feels. He is one of us. He understands. Knowing that, knowing that he has walked every step of the way before us, we can throw ourselves into his loving arms and ask him to help us. We can even ask him to carry us.

And he will. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Hebrews 4, Job 23, Mark 10, Psalm 22 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 19 Proper 22B RCL October 4, 2015

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Beth Crane

Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

Our opening reading is from the Book of Job. In ancient times, people believed that good things happened to good people, and bad things happened to bad people. Even today, we see vestiges of these beliefs. If something awful happens, we wonder whether we did something to cause it. If we become sick, we think about how we should have exercised more, or followed a more healthy diet. Jesus tells us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

When his three year old son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the wise book, When Bad things Happen to Good People. His thoughtful and prayerful struggle with this issue has helped millions of people.

In our reading, we learn that Job is a good man. But Satan, the adversary, the prosecuting attorney in the heavenly circles, is certain that, if God will allow him to afflict Job with bodily suffering, Job will lose his faith and curse God. We will be following his story for the next few weeks.

We all know how easy it is to have faith and hope and love when all is going well. But what happens to us when everything seems to go wrong? What happens to our faith? That is the question we will be looking at as we walk with Job.

The Letter to the Hebrews was written to inspire Jewish Christians in the early days of the faith. Their journey was not easy. They had left the established faith for what appeared to be a little splinter group. In our lesson for today, we read the words, speaking of Jesus, “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.”

Jesus was fully human, and he was fully divine. To put it more simply, Jesus was God walking the face of the earth. He has told us that he will be with us always, and he will be with us every step of the way. In fact he leads us because he is our Good Shepherd. This is good news indeed. Jesus is with us at this very moment, leading us and guiding us.

In our gospel, the Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up. They ask one of those questions which is not really seeking knowledge. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” In Jesus’ time, a man could divorce his wife for almost any reason, for example, if he dd not like her cooking or if he did not like the way she kept the house. Women were viewed as chattel, possessions. Like a piece of furniture or perhaps like a prized cow.

Women could not divorce their husbands, even if they were being beaten.

In this context, Jesus asks the Pharisees a question. “What does Moses say?” Moses allows a man to write a certificate of divorce. If a man wrote a certificate of divorce for his wife and her family did not take her in, she was forced to live out on the street earning her living any way that she could, often by prostitution.

And then Jesus says that Moses allowed for a certificate of divorce because marriage was not being taken seriously enough. He puts marriage on an entirely different, and higher, plane than his culture envisioned. Jesus describes marriage as a deep relationship of mutuality between two people. He is transforming marriage from a situation of a man owning property to a mutual relationship. Under the laws of his time, men were divorcing their wives just because they got tired of them and were marrying other women. In Jesus’ opinion, that amounted to adultery. Unfortunately, the Church sometimes takes things out of context, and there was a time when people who had taken their marriages very seriously and were divorced for valid reasons were kept from receiving Communion. Thanks be to God, those days are past.

When our Lord takes the little children into his arms, he is carrying out another revolution. In those days, babies and children were not valued. Men did not spend time with children. That was considered a waste of time. By taking these little ones into his arms, and by saying what he has said about marriage, Jesus is telling us that everyone is precious. Women and children are people, too. God loves and values everyone. Everyone is of infinite value in the eyes of God.

Making the commitment of marriage and keeping it is not an easy thing. Nowadays, we know that there is such a thing as domestic violence, which can tear marriages and families to shreds. We know that there are mental illnesses which make it impossible for persons to have the ability to make and keep a commitment. These things were unknown in Jesus’ time. The fact that the Church kept people from Communion when they most needed reassurances of God’s love and the comfort of a faith community is very sad.

Though our gospel is about marriage, it also applies to other relationships, including friendships, our ties with colleagues at work, and the love that binds us together as a parish family. In all these relationships, we are called to value each other, to keep our promises, to be honest, and to support each other.

Jesus reminds us today that no one is inferior to anyone else. He calls us to approach him and each other with the openness and trust of little children. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Hebrews 1, Job 1, Mark 10, Pslm 26 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 18 Proper 21B RCL September 27, 2015

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Beth Crane

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:9:20-22
Psalm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

Our opening reading, from the Book of Esther, is filled with drama. It tells us about the origins of the feast of Purim, which commemorates the saving of the Jews from Haman’s plot to kill them all. Here is some historical background to the story.

Along with many others, Mordecai, a Jew, is taken captive when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquers Jerusalem. Mordecai is taken to the city of Susa, where he becomes a respected member of the king’s court and a trusted advisor to the king. His cousin, Esther, becomes an orphan, and Mordecai takes her into his own home.

Through a series of events, Esther becomes the Queen of Persia. We are now in the reign of King Ahasuerus, which is his name in Hebrew. He is perhaps better known as King Xerxes I, who reigned from 486-465 B. C. Haman, a ruthless, arrogant, and anti-semitic member of the court, is plotting to kill Mordecai and all the Jews in the kingdom. With great courage, Esther appeals to the king to stop this genocide. Because of the antisemitism in the kingdom, she has hidden her Jewish identity, but now she ricks everything to save her people.

Her wish is granted, and Haman is hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. The point of the story is that Esther is a heroine. Like Moses, she has freed her people.

This reading can lead us to all kinds of themes to think about. Our Jewish brothers and sisters suffered the holocaust, one of the greatest horrors in history. Anti-Semitism has no place in the Christian faith. Even today, Jews, Muslims and others are being persecuted in many places. God is a God of love.

The Letter of James is so down to earth, so practical. Are we suffering? What should we do? We should pray. Are we cheerful? We should sing songs of praise. In every circumstance, we should pray.

When we pray, we are asking God to come into the midst of our lives with love and grace.

James says that when we are sick, we should call for the elders of the church to come and anoint us with oil and lay hands on us. Many churches have the laying on of hands and anointing with oil at or after the Eucharist on Sundays. When we are sick or suffering, it is a wonderful thing to share that and ask others to pray for us. James goes on to say that we should confess our sins to one another. In the early Church, this actually happened. People confessed ad received absolution in front of the congregation.

Nowadays, we tend to be more private, but it certainly helps to share our burdens with each other and ask for prayer. We can also confess to each other or we can confess individually to a priest. All of these things lead to spiritual health.

This is one of the wonderful gifts of Grace Church. We do share our burdens with each other. We don’t try to carry them alone. We ask each other to pray for us and for our families. With genuine gratitude to God and the community of faith, we ask for help. We don’t pretend to be perfect. We don’t pretend to be self-sufficient. We ask for help and prayers. And the power of those prayers helps each of us to be more healthy spiritually, emotionally, and physically. And that means that our community of faith is also more healthy, because we are all sharing our burdens and counting on each other and God for help. This is one reason why we do not have strife and division the way James’ community did. Because we know each other as frail and fallible human beings who are trying, with God’s grace, to be faithful followers of Christ, and we are all working together.

Our gospel builds on these themes of God’s love, mercy. and healing. The disciples see someone healing people in Jesus’ name. They ask Jesus whether they should stop the person. Jesus says, absolutely not. If people are doing good things, give them encouragement. Don’t stop them.

He tells them and us not to put barriers in people’s way. If some of these little people are trying to believe in hm, we should help them. We should explain our faith and live our faith in a way that encourages them to believe in Jesus.

And then our Lord tells us that if anything is getting in the way of our following him, we need to get rid of it. Maybe we have an addiction to something. We need to get into recovery. Maybe, like some of his disciples last Sunday, we are consumed with ambition and we want to be the greatest in his kingdom. We need to revise our thinking. If anything is getting between us and Jesus, we need to ask his help to remove it. Because we want to follow him with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength.

This week is an extraordinary week. Pope Francis has come among us. He is such an extraordinary person, such a holy example, an embodiment of God’s love, mercy, and healing. He has identified himself as someone from an immigrant family and has called us to work together to create an inclusive society in which all persons are treated with respect. He has called us to take climate change seriously and work to protect and preserve our beautiful planet. He has called us to protect the vulnerable people of our world and to work for “reconciliation, peace, and freedom.”

Our beloved bother, Pope Frances lives what he preaches. He causes untold worries for those who are trying to protect him by leaving his Pope Mobile to go out into the crowd and touch people and pray for people who need God’s love and healing. This brings hope and new meaning to people’s lives. To all of our lives. Pope Francis is a living and inspiring example of the points of all our readings today.

May we follow his example.

Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: Esther 7, James 5, Mark 9, Psalm 124 | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 17 Proper 20B RCL September 20, 2015

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Beth Crane

Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-17

Our opening reading, which is the concluding portion of the Book of Proverbs, begins with a question: “A capable wife who can find?” The passage then launches into a description. Biblical scholars have a range of views about this passage. Some scholars advise that we should really skip this passage because it comes from a patriarchal culture. It is true that the excellence of the good woman enhances her husband’s status in the city’s gates, where all the important decisions are made, and, in a patriarchal society, women did not participate in those decisions.

But other scholars encourage us to take a deeper look. Some say that, yes, this text was written in the midst of a patriarchal culture, but that it describes a strong, gifted woman, and that she and her husband have a good relationship based on mutuality. Some say that this woman is a personification of wisdom and that the word“husband” is actually describing the followers of wisdom. Some even say that the passage describes the qualities of God. If we keep in mind that Jesus is closely associated with wisdom, that is not a huge leap.

Let’s take this on the literal level first. This is a description of a “capable wife.” Kathleen O’Connor of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia says that, if we look carefully at the original Hebrew, “The woman is more literally a ‘strong woman,’ a ‘woman of worth,’ a ‘warriorlike woman.’ She is a mysterious figure who greatly rewards anyone who settles down to live in her household.”

She is creative; she weaves and makes clothes for her family; she wakes up early and works hard; she manages and takes care of her household; she buys fields and plants vineyards. Commentator Neil Elliot translates, “She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong,” into, “She works out.” In other words, she is strong. She dresses herself and her household well. They do not have to fear the snow. They will be warmly clothed. She is a person of justice. She helps the poor and needy. She cares about her community and the world. In addition to conducting real estate transactions and running a vineyard, she has a business making and selling linen garments.

She “laughs at the time to come,” Her faith is so deep that she is joyful in the face of the future. She is a teacher, and she teaches wisdom and kindness. Her family sees that she is happy, and they praise her. She has many wonderful qualities, and the most important one is her deep faith.

Even if we take this passage at the literal level, this woman is a wonderful holy example. If we take it as a description of wisdom, or living the life in Christ, it is still a fine example for us to follow.

Wisdom is strong; it is creative; it is industrious; wisdom enhances those who associate with it; it is competent in business transactions; wisdom takes care of the people in its household; wisdom has deep faith.

Our passage from the letter of James says, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits; without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”

Apparently, the congregation he is addressing has been suffering from conflict and division, and he is trying to show them the way out of that.

In our gospel, Jesus has begun to talk about the cross. He is among us as one who serves, and he calls us to serve others in his Name. But the disciples are having a difficult time making the transition from a worldly military hero carrying out a revolution to our Lord, calling us to allow him to transform us.

On the way, they have been arguing and when they get to Capernaum, he asks them what they have been talking about. They are so ashamed that they fall into silence, because they have been fighting over who is going to be the greatest in his kingdom.

Of course, he knows this. They are in the house. He sits down and calls the twelve to him. We can imagine that he asks them to sit down with him. When we are trying to communicate things that are hard to grasp, it is good to get quiet, sit down together, ask God to be in our midst, calm ourselves, and put our full attention on the matter at hand.

And then Jesus says those great words of wisdom: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” That dissolves any thoughts of who is going to be the greatest. That removes any possibility of competition or comparison. We are here to serve each other, and we are all called to put each other first. That’s how his kingdom works. That’s the basis for his shalom. That’s the blueprint for the reign of God.

Then he takes a little child in his arms. In that society and time, children had no status. They were considered chattel, property, possessions. And Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

He is turning everything upside down. If we welcome a little child, we are welcoming him. The quality of our faith and our discipleship is based on how we welcome and treat those who are the most vulnerable. The quality of our discipleship is based, not on how great we are but on how much we serve others.

Blessed Lord, give us the grace to love and follow you and to love and serve others, especially those who are most vulnerable. In your Holy Name we pray. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: James 3, Kathleen O'Connor, Mark 9, Neil Elliot, Proverbs 31, Psalm 1 | Leave a comment »

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