Pentecost 23 Proper 26 C RCL October 24, 2010

Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
2 Timothy 4:6-8; 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

This morning we meet the prophet Joel, whose ministry took place between 350 and 400 B.C.E., during the Persian Period. Cyrus of Persia conquered the Babylonia Empire, and, in 539 B.C.E., the people returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and re-establish their lives. In contrast to someone like Amos, who was a dresser of sycamore trees and not an official prophet, Joel was a cultic prophet who was familiar with the temple and its worship.

Joel tells the people that there have been bad times in the past, but good times are now coming. The dark times could have been literal plagues of locusts or the attacks of armies which seemed like locusts in their numbers and destruction, but now God is going to bless the people with bountiful harvests.

And God is also going to send God’s spirit among the people. The spirit will enliven all people, men and women, people of all classes and walks of life.

In our epistle for today, Paul is about to die. He has passed on everything he knows to Timothy, his young student and disciple. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” Paul writes. Often spiritual leaders of that time compared our spiritual journey to an athletic event. Being a good follower of Christ demands the best we have to offer. We need to stay in shape spiritually through prayer, study, and action. As our diocesan mission statement says, we are called to pray the prayer of Christ, learn the mind of Christ, and do the deeds of Christ. Paul has done all this and more. He has persevered through imprisonments, shipwrecks, and other catastrophes, and he makes it clear that he knows that God has brought him through all these challenges.

Today’s gospel is a familiar story. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” When we hear this, we bring to the story things we have heard about Pharisees, and we tend to make the Pharisee the bad guy. But we need to remember that when people heard Jesus say that one of these men was a Pharisee, they had a different view from ours. People of Jesus’ time knew that Pharisees, as one scholar writes, “were devoted to God’s commandments and…worked to discern how best to live and act faithfully in matters of everyday life.”(Audrey West, New Proclamation, Year C , p.252.) In Jesus’ time, people tended to see Pharisees in a positive light.

Tax collectors, on the other hand, were the lowest of the low. They often collected taxes for the Roman Empire, and they were viewed as collaborators with the occupying forces. They were also hated because they often became rich from collecting tolls from laborers and traders. In other words, the amassed their wealth on the backs of the poor.

The people of Jesus’ time would not have expected him to use a tax collector as a model of spiritual growth. This reminds us of the parable of the Samaritan who helped the man who had been robbed. The idea of a Good Samaritan would have been an oxymoron to people of Jesus’ time. Jesus’ listeners would have seen the Pharisee in a good light and the tax collector as a scoundrel.

The Pharisee tells God that he has done his duty according to the law. He fasts, he tithes, he does everything he is supposed to do. But he is full of self-satisfaction and judgment of other people, including the tax collector. On the outside, he may be looking holy, and he may be praying in just the right way as far as externals are concerned but he is oozing with arrogance. The tax collector, on the other hand, knows how people view him. He is aware that he has a long way to go on his spiritual journey. He is aware that he needs God’s help, and he is asking for God’s help.

Once again, as Mary sang in the Magnificat, the reign of Christ reverses the present social order:

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
And has filled up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
And the rich he has sent away empty.

In Jesus’ reign, everything is reversed. Social status, wealth, worldly power, money, influence, all the things which are so highly valued in this world, mean nothing. The tax collector knows that he is despised and looked down upon. His prayer is real, He asks God for mercy. The Pharisee is doing everything right according to the law, but he is so full of himself that there is no room to let God in.

Prayer is not about flowery words or doing things the right way according to some external standard like the law. Prayer is about being honest with God, telling it like it is, and asking for help.

One of my favorite prayers is found on a poster in the bathroom at All Saints Church in South Burlington. The poster reads,

“A prayer to be said
when the world has gotten you down
and you feel rotten
and you’re too tired to pray
and you’re in a big hurry
and besides you’re mad at everybody

HELP!”

Over the years, I have found that this prayer can be reduced to its essence and be quite effective: Help!

Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 21 Proper 24C RCL October 19, 2010

Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

In our reading from the Book of Jeremiah this morning, the people of Judah are still in exile in Babylon, and the prophet is called by God to announce a new relationship, a new covenant between God and the people. God says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me.”

Following the devastating experience of the Exile, the people will be closer to God. Each and every person will know God in a close and intimate way. What a beautiful and powerful statement of God’s love for us, and this closeness with God is something we all yearn for.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul continues his encouragement to Timothy to treasure the legacy of faith which he has received from his mother and grandmother and to live that faith and teach the faith so that the people under his care will be “equipped for every good work.” This is exactly what we are doing today, sharing our faith so that we can go out into the world and share the good news.

One note which I always offer on this passage. Paul says, “All scripture is inspired by God…”There are some people who teach that the Bible was literally dictated by God to a divine secretary who wrote it all down. This is a view which arose in the Fundamentalist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Biblical scholars have traced the composition of the scriptures.

In the Hebrew scriptures or the Old Testament, we can find four strands of composition dating from 950 B.C.E. to 450 B.C.E., four different groups of scholars and editors who composed these scriptures. In the Greek scriptures, or the New Testament, there are also many authors. All of these scriptures were certainly inspired by God. The people who wrote these words were doing their best to share the story of God’s relationship with us humans. There are many contradictions in the Bible, but this does not detract from the deep truths which are found in the scriptures. So, to sum up, the people who wrote this library of books called the Bible were certainly inspired by God to do that work just as we are inspired by God to spread the Good News in our own day. But the Bible is not to be taken literally.

In our Gospel for today, we have the familiar story of the persistent widow. She gave the unjust judge such a hassle that he finally granted her request. The traditional interpretation of this parable is that, if this obviously less than sterling judge could be badgered into granting the widow’s petition, how much more will God, who loves us, answer our prayers. This is a fine and true interpretation.

Audrey West of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, offers an interesting variation.

She point out that, as we know, widows were among the most vulnerable people in the society of Jesus’ time. If a woman’s husband died, she could lose her livelihood because the property and possessions she had shared with her husband reverted to the husband’s family. West points out that, from the beginning of the life of the people of God, widows were among the poor and marginalized and the community was called to show care and concern for them. West states that widows, and we can say women in general, were supposed to confine their activities to the private family sphere, but this widow moves into the public sphere, challenging the status quo by her persistent appeals to this judge, who in his unresponsiveness, goes against everything a judge in that culture should stand for. According to the law, a judge was supposed to represent God’s justice. This judge certainly does not meet that standard.

West writes, “The widow brings about a change in the judge, not by force, but by her unrelenting pursuit of justice, even from her position of vulnerability. In this regard, she is a lot like God, who comes as a vulnerable child born into poor surroundings, who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the poor and lowly, whose own power does not force others to act, but is revealed on the cross in the crucified King of the Jews.”

Like the widow,” West continues, “God is persistent in the pursuit of justice, returning again and again despite the arrogance and sinfulness of human persons and institutions. God does not give up. There is reason to pray always, trusting that God is at work to bring about justice in every circumstance, no matter how bad it might appear. Even in the face of sinful powers-that-be, God is victorious through the vulnerable persistent power of God, demonstrated in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Is this not reason to pray always, to remain faithful, and to trust in God?” (West, New Proclamation, Year C, 2010, p.247)

God is writing God’s law of love and compassion on our hearts. God reaches out to us to form a new and deeper relationship so that each of us can be as close to God and to each other as we are to our own breath. God has given us the legacy of faith. God has given us new life in Jesus. God is building God’s shalom at this very minute, and we are called to help in that work.

The Church in the twenty-first century is called to be different than the Church of the past. In our meetings with Lynn Bates, Lynn alluded to the idea that we are now in the post-modern, post-Christendom age, and we are called to be the vibrant Church in this new era. I have some copies of a fascinating book which Lynn also mentioned. It’s called Changing the Conversation. It was written by Anthony Robinson, a minister in the United Church of Christ and an expert in congregational development who has thought-provoking ideas to share. He will also be with us here in the Diocese of Vermont on June 4 and 5, 2011.

Each of you is welcome to take a copy of Mr. Robinson’s book and read it. We will then make some time to talk about this book as well as the other book we have been reading, called The Shack. Together, these two books give us much to think about. They speak of our deep relationship with a God who loves us very much and how to form ministering communities based on that love.

May we grow ever closer to God and to each other. May we share the good news as Timothy did. May we persevere in prayer and in sharing God’s compassion with all we meet. Amen

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 20 Proper 23 C RCL October 10, 2010

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66: 1-11
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

In our first lesson, the Babylonian Empire has conquered Jerusalem. The leaders of Judah and many others are in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah writes to them from Jerusalem and encourages then to continue with their lives, to build houses, plant gardens, raise families, and to pray for their captors, for in the welfare of Babylon they will find their welfare.

Commentator Audrey West notes that this lesson speaks to our world in which, in our country, so many people have lost their homes through foreclosure, and so many people are refugees. She writes, “However, there is reason to hope even in the midst of shattered dreams. The people of God can bloom where they are planted, making the best of their circumstances. They can create a new “normal” as they learn to live into this reality. In a world turned upside down, the people of God are called and encouraged to remain faithful no matter where they are or what circumstances they face.” (New Proclamation, Year C 2010, p.236.)

In our epistle, Paul continues to encourage Timothy to persevere in faith. “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.” We have died with Christ in our baptisms, in which we die to sin, to the brokenness which turns us away from God and others. Because we have died with him, we now join in his life, that new life rooted and grounded in faith and love and compassion.

In today’s Gospel, we have the story of the ten lepers who are healed by Jesus. Our Lord is still on his way to Jerusalem, and he is apparently on the border between Galilee and Samaria. We need to remember that the Jews thought the Samaritans were beyond the pale, that their theology was not correct and that they were therefore outcasts.

Jesus goes into the village and the ten lepers approach him. Scholars tell us that lepers usually lived in groups. They stayed away from people because they were considered unclean. But these ten people call to Jesus, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!” and Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. This is because in that time, the priests were responsible for determining whether the lepers had been healed, in other words, whether they were now clean. As they go on their way to the priests, they are healed.

Nine of the lepers keep going to the priests to be pronounced clean. But one notices he is now healed and he praises God and comes back and thanks Jesus. And Jesus tells him to get up and go on his way, because his faith has made him well. This man was a Samaritan, so, as a leper, he had two strikes against him. He was unclean on two counts, Yet he is the only one who comes back and gives thanks. In Luke, it is the outcasts who often give us the most powerful examples of true faith.

This Gospel makes me think of what I call the attitude of gratitude. This is a concept which we find in twelve step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. I am a recovering alcoholic, and I probably wouldn’t be here if AA didn’t exist. I know what it is to feel like a leper and an outcast. That is one reason I want to help to start an AA group here in Sheldon just as I did when I lived in Milton. Because AA is one of God’s paths to new life.

I think most of us know that feeling of being an outcast or unworthy to one degree or another, Most of us have things that we wouldn’t want printed on the front page of the New York Times. So we can understand what a relief and a joy it is to have something like that lifted from us as if by a miracle, I consider my recovery a miracle, and it has become a source of God’s gift to me of being able to help others.

Some of the AA literature describes members of AA as a group of people who have survived a shipwreck and are now pulling together to row a lifeboat. That’s the level of gratitude. We were dead, and now we live. That’s my level of gratitude every day of the life God gives me.

My experience of recovery makes it easy for me to find gratitude. I am asking you to find within you some experience that gives you that sense of having died with Christ and now living with Christ. Some experience in your life that helps you get in touch with a way in which you were dead but are now alive in Christ. Something you went through that makes you so grateful to be here, so grateful to have the gift of faith, so grateful to have a faith community that is so vibrant. Small, but vibrant.

We are going to be starting to think about stewardship in a concentrated way. One, we will be thinking about our pledges for this coming year. And, two, we will be thinking of pledges of time, talent, and treasure for our building project. Please start thinking about these things. God gives us everything we have. What portion of all that will you return to God for next year’s pledge and for our building project? Something we all need to pray about.

It is so easy, especially in bad economic times, to think of how little we have. But that’s not the attitude of gratitude. We have so much. I once again encourage you to make that gratitude list or to review the one you already have made. What do I have to be grateful for? I can see, I can hear, I can think, I can talk, I can pray, I can walk, even run, sing, love, help people. I have a roof over my head, clothes to wear, especially now that the cold weather is coming, that’s a good thing.

God calls us to have a theology of abundance. We cannot look at the cup half empty. That accomplishes nothing. Furthermore, it denies all the gifts God has given us. We must always look at the cup not only half full, but full and running over. We have so much. Compared to most of the rest of the world, we are hugely wealthy. And it is absolutely true: the more we give, the more we have. That is the theology of abundance.

We are at a crucial place in our journey as a community of faith. We have so much to offer. This congregation has so many gifts it is truly amazing—Grace. I can envision a counseling/healing/meditation center here as well as a community center and meeting place. The sky is the limit. Ten were healed. One came back to offer thanks. Somebody once said that we Christians are so lucky because we know whom to thank. Thanks be to God for all these gifts.

The attitude of gratitude. Thanks be to God for all these many and powerful and beautiful gifts!

Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 15 Proper 18C RCL September 5, 2010

 Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5; 12-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

 This morning, Jeremiah makes an analogy. God is the potter and the people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, are the clay. In his analogy, the potter has control over the outcome. If the clay is uncooperative and the potter thinks the vessel will not turn out well, the potter can mush the clay together and begin again. Judah is not being cooperative with God, They have strayed. But God the potter is portrayed as being willing to give them another chance if they show signs of wanting to shape up.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is still on the way to Jerusalem and death. He is trying to be clear about the cost of discipleship. Following him would cause all kinds of difficulties. There would be outright persecution by the Roman Empire, and there would also be rifts with family and friends. When Jesus talks about hating our families, scholars tell us the word might better be translated by saying that his followers must be willing to bring dishonor to their families. The new faith would not be held in high esteem in society at large, and following Christ could bring shame to one’s family. It could also bring death in times of persecution.

The Letter to Philemon is the shortest epistle in the New Testament. There is a great deal that is not made clear in this letter.  Paul is in prison.  Scholars tell us that he is either in Rome, Ephesus, or Caesarea. There is reason to think that he is in Ephesus because that was the major city in the province where Colossae, the home of Philemon, was located. Philemon and the other people mentioned in the letter, are part of a house church in Colossae. We need to remember that church buildings did not happen until the third century after Christ.

Onesimus is a slave who belongs to Philemon. Some scholars think Onesimus has run away; some think he may have stolen something from Philemon, but, in any case, Onesimus has gone, probably to Ephesus, and has found Paul in prison and, through Paul’s ministry, Onesimus has become a follower of Christ.

According to the laws of that time, you were supposed to return a slave to his master. Paul is doing this. He is sending this letter with Archippus, and Archippus is escorting Onesimus back to Philemon.

Paul is following the letter of the law, but he is also adding several dimensions to the situation. First of all, in the course of teaching Onesimus about the faith, Paul has grown to love this young man as a father loves his son, and Onesimus has become useful to Paul in his work. Incidentally, Onesimus means useful in Greek.

Paul is probably under a type of house arrest. It appears that he can receive visitors; obviously he can write letters, and he continues to carry out his ministry from prison. Paul writes to Philemon, “Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother…So, if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.”

In those days, if there was a dispute or problem, a third party often was asked to intervene. Paul is doing this, and he is saying that, if Onesimus has done anything wrong, Paul will make up for it.

Paul says that he had wanted to keep Onesimus with him so that he could be of service to Paul during this imprisonment but he preferred to do nothing without Philemon’s consent.  At the end of the letter, Paul writes, “Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.”

Renowned scholar and theologian John Know of Union Theological Seminary in New York offers some fascinating and compelling ideas on this letter.  He believes that Paul, with great care and delicacy, was asking Philemon to free Onesimus and send him back to Paul. Dr. Knox has come to this conclusion through extensive research into other documents, particularly the letters of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in Syria.

What we think happened is this: Philemon did honor Paul’s wish. He sent Onesimus back to Paul in Ephesus. Onesimus was an eager student and he became one of Paul’s assistants, together with people like Timothy, Titus, and Silas. These assistants became leaders of the Church in the years after Paul died (65 A.D.)  One of Ignatius’ letters, written in 110 A. D.,  mentions that the Bishop of Ephesus, a man named Onesimus, came to visit Ignatius when he was in prison! There is good reason to believe that Paul asked Philemon to send Onesimus back to him and that Onesimus became one of Paul’s most valued assistants and eventually was called to be  a bishop. This might explain why, out of all the hundreds of letters Paul wrote, this letter, which is addressed to an individual, not to a church, was saved when people were figuring out what, out of all the writings available at that time, should be placed in the Holy Scriptures.

Paul does not come out and say slavery is wrong.  But this letter makes it clear that, in the church, as he says in Galatians “There is no slave nor free, no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus.” In the church, we are brothers and sisters. No one should dominate anyone else. There is a new order. 

This letter has great significance for us so many centuries later. Yes, we now realize that one person cannot own another, and that is very good.  But we are also called to treat each other as equals, as precious children of God, as beloved brothers and sisters. This thinking is at the center of the life of Grace Church, where there has been and is such attention to making sure that everyone is valued and included. We do not have slavery today in the United States, but there are so many ways in which there can be subtle or not so subtle power differentials. The gentleness and care and love with which Paul offers his proposal to Philemon should mark all of our interactions as Christians.  So often, the quiet, considerate, thoughtful request or idea, rooted and grounded in prayer, has so much real power and seems so true because it is so true.

Through the intervention of that skilled and visionary pastor, Paul, a slave becomes a bishop. What a story. St. Francis de Sales once said, “Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.”

                                                           Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 14 Proper 17C RCL August 29, 2010

 Jeremiah 2:4-13

Psalm 81:1, 10-16

Hebrews 13:1-8, 13-16

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

As one commentator notes, out first lesson is a cross between a lawsuit and a lovers’ quarrel.  The year is 626 B. C. The prophet Jeremiah, around 18 years of age, is called by God to tell the people that, after God has faithfully protected them so that they could journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land, the people have chosen the worthless Canaanite god, Baal. Baal was a fertility god. He was said to be the god of rain, which obviously is needed for the growth of crops. The people of God have abandoned the living water of true faith in order to build cisterns to hold the rainwater of Baal.  Rulers and religious leaders had drifted far from God’s values.

Just before our gospel passage for today, Jesus does another healing on the Sabbath. This time he cures a man of dropsy. The Sabbath is always a celebration of God’s leading us out of slavery to freedom. Healings help people to be free.

Then Jesus goes to the home of a Pharisee for a meal. He notices that the guests are choosing the places of honor.  In those days, the men would recline on cushions. The head table was in the center. There the host and honored guests would recline. If someone distinguished arrived late, which, according to scholars happened quite frequently, he would be placed at the center with the host, and another guest would have to move from the center table of honor to the outskirts of the feast.

Jesus offers a bit of practical etiquette by telling us to go to the lowest seat. In that way, the host can always call us to move to the center table if there is room. But Jesus is telling us about a wedding banquet, and this gives us a signal that he is talking about the heavenly banquet. He is talking about his kingdom, his reign, his shalom.  In the shalom of God, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind will be at the head table, at the place of honor.

Today we read our last selection from the Letter to the Hebrews. The author is summing up.  Written at the end of the first century after Christ, the letter is to a congregation of Jews who have adopted the new faith in Jesus of Nazareth. They have suffered persecution. They have been imprisoned.  It has been anything but easy.

The guidance offered in this passage involves the Christian community.

They are to love each other, no matter what. They are to show hospitality to strangers. Scholars tell us that this refers to Christians who were traveling from place to place. In those days, travel was extremely dangerous.  The Christian faith was spread by people who had to travel on business as well as by missionaries like Paul and Timothy and Barnabas. Visit those in prison. Many members of the congregation had been there, or were in prison when the letter was written.  Be faithful in marriage and in committed relationships. Be careful about the love of money. Be content with what you have. Do good, share what you have. 

The people of Jeremiah’s time, at least the leaders, were drifting away from God. The members of the congregation addressed in the Letter to the Hebrews were trying to live their faith. And that’s what we are trying to do as well.

The writer of this inspiring letter says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Through him, then let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.”

Retired Episcopal priest Gray Temple writes of this passage, “The work of actually praising God and meaning it is transformative: it changes us. Here is how it works. You come to resemble what you admire. People who admire money get green and crinkly. People who admire computers grow user-unfriendly. People who admire youth get juvenile. People who actively and deliberately admire Jesus Christ come to resemble him as he actually was and remains today, unchanged from age to age: generous, merry, tender, fierce, courageous, somewhat mischievous, fully open to others….” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 4, p. 16.)

There is a beautiful old hymn which goes like this:  “Turn your eyes upon Jesus/ Look full in his wonderful face/And the things of earth will grow strangely dim/In the light of his glory and grace.”

If we “turn our eyes upon Jesus,” if we focus on him and worship him and ask him for guidance in all things and seek to do his will, and do his will to the best of our abilities, with his grace, we become more and more like him, as individuals and as a community. It’s amazing but true. He lives in and through us. We do as he would do. That’s the journey. That’s the goal. He is alive in us.

Dear Lord, Help us to grow into your likeness more and more each day.

                                                          Amen

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 13 Proper 16 C RCL August 22, 2010

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

In our first lesson today, God tells the young prophet Jeremiah that God knew Jeremiah even before Jeremiah was formed in the womb and that God had called Jeremiah to be a prophet before he was born. Jeremiah tells God that he can’t possibly carry out this ministry because he is too young. But God puts God’s hand on Jeremiah’s mouth and puts God’s words in Jeremiah’s mouth.

This lesson applies directly to you and me. God had us in mind even before we were born. God created each of us in our uniqueness and called us to our ministries and gave us the gifts we need to do our ministries. Like so many of God’s servants who say they aren’t good enough or strong enough, we may feel inadequate, but we are in good company there. Time and time again, God calls people, and they say, but there’s no way I can do that, and God gives them the gifts they need. God does that with us, too. Each and every one of you is ministering to the needs of others in your daily lives. Each of you has amazing gifts. If I began to name them, the list would go on and on. But at the root of all the gifts which you folks show forth in ministry is that wonderful gift of seeing what others need, seeing what could lift up someone who is down, seeing ways to reach out to others who are struggling, offering a listening ear and a caring heart, helping people to belong, helping people to be a part of things. We may feel inadequate to do our ministries, but God gives us the grace and power to share God’s love and care with others.

In today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, we begin with the early experience of God during the time of the Exodus. The general belief was that one could not see the face of God and live. God was, in a word, terrifying. When God came to Mt. Sinai to give Moses the Law, there was fire and thunder and a cloud which covered the mountain. Moses had to put a veil over his face when he came down from the mountain so the people would not see the light of the glory of God which shone on Moses face and die.

Now we are able to meet God face to face in our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant. God has come to meet us. God has come among us. God has become one of us, fully human as well as fully divine. Yes, God is a God of justice. And God is also a God of mercy and compassion.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. There is a woman who has been crippled for 18 years. She is bent over and cannot stand up straight. As a woman and a person who was ill, she was considered doubly unclean. People would not associate with her. This woman does not go up to Jesus and ask for help. Jesus notices her, even though she is the least of the least—a woman and a cripple. Jesus calls her over and says, “Woman, you are free from your ailment.” He lays his hands on her and she stands up straight and begins praising the Lord.

The leader of the synagogue gets upset that Jesus has done a healing on the Sabbath. We need to be careful not to be anti-Jewish when we think about this situation. We in the Church can get legalistic about things, too. Think of the furor about the new prayer book (1979) or the new hymnal (1982), or the various other upsets that have happened in the Church.

Jesus responds with a classic rabbinic argument that goes from the lesser to the greater. Everyone knows that we will take our ox or our donkey from the manger and lead it to water on the Sabbath. Doesn’t it make sense that we would free this daughter of Abraham from her illness?

Yes, it is important to have Sabbath time, time for rest, recreation, and refreshment. But Jesus calls us to remember the meaning of rules, not turn them into new forms of oppression. Here is God’s own child who has been isolated and ill for 18 years. God wants her to be whole and a full member of society.

This gospel is new in the Revised Common Lectionary. One of its many points is that God wants people to be healed and whole. God does not want people to suffer from illness or isolation. The ministry of healing is a crucial part of our life together as a praying community.

Barbara R. Rossing writes of this passage: “By calling to the crippled woman and healing her, Jesus affirms the importance of the physical body and the importance of health. Morton Kelsey, who writes about the changes in the attitude of the church toward spiritual healing through the centuries, notes that of the 3,779 verses in the four Gospels of the New Testament, 727 relate specifically to healing and another 31 verses refer to miracles that include healings. Contemporary attitudes toward spiritual healing are complicated by the questionable practices of some healers and televangelists who prey on the vulnerable. At the same time, spiritual healing and healing services that invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit on behalf of those who are suffering are part of a long tradition within Christianity.” Rossing, New Proclamation, Year C, 2001, p. 174.)

Our prayers for healing make a huge difference. There is substantial research which shows that people who pray and people who are prayed for do better during and after surgery and during recovery from illness. We are called to pray with deep faith that God’s healing power is always at work in people’s lives and that healing will take place, often in ways we could not imagine.

God works through researchers, doctors and nurses, and everyone on a medical team treating a patient. I almost laugh when people talk about the conflict between religion and science. There is no conflict. God gave us brains so that we can find cures, find the right treatment, and do whatever is necessary to help people be whole. In our prayers for our brothers and sisters who are ill, let us remember this gospel and let us remember that our Lord wants everyone to be whole.

Loving and gracious God, thank you for loving us even before we were born. Thank you that nothing can ever get in the way of your love. Thank you for your healing, which makes us wounded humans whole. Help us to have unshakeable faith in your healing power, which helps us to stand up straight and lift our voices in praise to you. In your Holy Name we pray.

Amen

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 12 Proper 15C RCL August 15, 2010 (2)

Isaiah 5: 1-7
Psalm 80: 1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12: 49-56

Dear friends, we are encountering some very challenging lessons this morning. Let’s see whether we can find out how they might speak to us.

Our first lesson, again from the First Isaiah, is a powerful, poetic story about someone who plants a vineyard. It is clear that the planter cares deeply about the vineyard, because he chooses s spot on a fertile hill, digs the soil and clears it of stones, plants it with choice vines, builds a watchtower and even makes a wine vat in anticipation of a good harvest.

But the vineyard does not yield sweet grapes. It yields wild grapes. One translator says that the literal translation would be “stinkers,” the same word used to describe decaying flesh! After all this hard work and care, the vineyard fails. The planter asks the people to judge between him and his vineyard. Anyone hearing this story in that age would have said to the planter, “You have done everything you could possibly have done. You must tear out all the vines and replant.”

But then it becomes clear that the planter is Yahweh, God, and that the people of God, who have just said that the vineyard needs to be destroyed and replanted, are receiving a judgment from God. The people have not created a society based on justice and compassion. They have not lived in righteousness, that is, they have not lived in right relationship with God and with each other. The rich and powerful have grown in wealth and power at the expense of those on the margins. And the leaders have engaged in political power plays and unwise alliances which are going to lead to war and their defeat. They will be conquered by foreign powers.

Does God micromanage history? I do not think so. God has given us humans free will. We have choices, and, when we make choices contrary to God’s vision of a human community marked by respect for all and compassion for those at the margins, our societies fall by their own weight. Please note that God is not angry in this story. God is disappointed in the failure of the people to create the society God called them to make.

In our gospel for today, Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem. “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He will die there. Baptism means literally drowning, death. He knows that it is going to be a horrible death. He is such a threat to the powers of both the Roman Empire and the religious establishment that they feel they have to kill him.

The shalom of Christ is not an easy peace. When we make our choice to follow Christ, that choice has consequences which we can not know at the time.

Recently, ten members of the International Assistance Mission, a Christian group which has been bringing medical and dental care to the remote reaches of Afghanistan for many years, were shot. Six Americans, two Afghans, one person from Britain and one from Germany. Dr. Tom Little, an optometrist from Delmar, New York, had served there for thirty years. He and his wife had raised their children in Afghanistan. Dr. Thomas Grams gave up a lucrative dental practice to bring dental care to people in Afghanistan, Nepal, Guatemala, and India. He gave thousands of toothbrushes and bright smiles to kids who had never seen a toothbrush. Glenn Lapp, a nurse from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had served in Afghanistan since 2008. Cheryl Beckett had worked in Afghanistan for six years helping people with gardening and mother-child health. They were there just to help, not to convert people. As one person said, they were there to treat people with respect and love. That is what the shalom of Christ is all about. Leaders of International Aid Mission said that this tragedy will not mean the end of the work in Afghanistan. The work will go on.

Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, writes, “Shalom is a vision of the City of God on earth, a community where people are at peace with each other because each one has enough to eat, adequate shelter, medical care, and meaningful work….Each of us has the potential to be a partner in God’s government, to be a co-creator of a good and whole and peaceful community. Each one of us has been given abundant gifts to do that work. All that’s needed is a vision and a heart. The vision is one that Isaiah spells out—a society of peace and justice. The heart is a work in progress for all of us, sometimes a harder heart, sometimes one softened up enough to feel compassion for those who haven’t yet experienced that vision of shalom.” (A Wing and a Prayer, pp. 33-34.)

We face some challenging questions. How can I help to advance God’s shalom? Which of these choices before me is going to add to Christ’s shalom?

Our Lord was telling us that following him is not easy. It can sometimes put us at odds with those closest to us, even our own families. The Letter to the Hebrews was addressed to new Christians who had made the choice to follow Christ and had suffered many challenges, including persecution. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of all the faithful people who have gone before us and ends with a stirring call to hope and faith, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

There is nothing we have to endure which our Lord has not already endured. He is our Good Shepherd. He goes out in front of us. As an ancient prayer says, “Lord, wherever I go, thou art there.” Lead us and guide us, O Lord.

Amen

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 11 Proper 14C RCL August 8, 2010

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12: 32-40

In one way or another, from very different perspectives, our lessons this morning all talk about faith. What does it mean to have real faith? What is the relationship between faith and worship? As persons of faith, how are we supposed to conduct our lives? These are all very important questions.

This morning we meet the prophet Isaiah, whose ministry took place in the Southern Kingdom in the eighth century before Christ. Isaiah’s ministry was at about the same time as Amos and Hosea, whom we have met recently. The situation in the south is very similar to that in the north. The Kings and the people worship God. They offer sacrifices. But Isaiah tells them that God does not want sacrifices of animals. God wants those who have to take care of those who have very little or nothing. God says, “Learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.”

Human awareness of the nature of God is growing. Isaiah and others are telling us that God does not want animal sacrifices. God wants us to offer our lives in compassionate caring and service to others.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.” The writer of this letter was addressing Jews who had adopted the new Christian faith. Now they are facing persecution. They are tempted to go back to their former faith community. The writer is calling them to continue on their journey of faith and is holding up that wonderful icon of faith, Abraham, who journeyed into an unknown land and, with his wife, Sarah, brought forth the people of God, numbering as many as the grains of sand on the beach. This happened even though Abraham and Sarah were far beyond childbearing age.

Jesus is on the journey to Jerusalem with his disciples and with us. He has been teaching them not to be afraid for the future and to trust God. Last week we had the parable of the rich man who built barns upon barns to store all his wealth and died. Between that and today’s lesson we have Jesus talking about the lilies of the field, who do not toil or spin, yet God takes care of them.

The reality is that Jesus’ followers have left everything to follow him. They are probably wondering whether they will have food or shelter. Jesus reassures them. The next step in the passage is a parable about the master leaving the servants in charge and coming home to find them alert. The master then serves the servants. This would never have happened in Jesus’ time. The master would have expected the servants to do the work. But this is a parable about Jesus’ shalom. The arrangements of this world are turned upside down. Jesus serves supper to his disciples, who have been ready and alert.

By the time Luke’s gospel was written, it had been more than a generation since Jesus had been crucified and had risen. People were wondering when Jesus would come again. This gospel is a call to be prepared at all times.

Now it has been two thousand years. We are still waiting. Christ’s kingdom has begun but is not yet complete. We are not exactly being persecuted as were the folks addressed in our epistle to the Hebrews. However, in this post-Christian era, the Church is seen by many as irrelevant. Why should we bother? Why should we keep the faith? What is the difference between us and everybody else?

If we were Wall Street bankers, would we invent financial instruments which were, in effect, highly risky games of chance in order to make oodles of money? Hopefully not. If we were in charge of an oil rig, would we cut corners, buzz right past safety measures, and cause the hugest oil spill this country has ever seen? Hopefully not. But we are seeing the same things that Amos and Hosea and Isaiah were talking about.

“Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”

Is it about making a lot of money? No. Is it about doing work that advances Christ’s shalom? Yes. Is it about getting a lot of power? No. Is it about compassion? Yes. Is it about doing work that really helps our brothers and sisters who have less than we have? Yes. Is it about helping people find light in the midst of darkness? Yes. Is it about adding to the darkness? No. Is it about overcoming the darkness? Yes.

The life and ministry and love and healing and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth have changed the world forever, and we know that. The love of Jesus has called us into new life through our baptisms and we know and cherish that. His love is what calls us together. He is here right now and he is about to serve us a meal. Every moment of our lives he welcomes us into new life in his kingdom. This is what calls us together and this is what allows us to be close, as close as family, This is what allows us to share our joys and our sorrows, the real substance of our lives so that we can give each other strength and faith for the journey. Because Christ is alive. He is here with us now, and that is the true treasure of our lives, the gift he has given us.

That is the mustard seed, the invisible yeast, the heart of his kingdom, his shalom. The values of that kingdom are where real life is found.

May we be ready. May we keep our lamps lighted, and although our Master may want to serve us and does, may we also serve him.

Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 5 Proper 8C RCL June 27, 2010

2 Kings 2:1-2;6-14
Psalm 77:1-2;11-20
Galatians 5:1; 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” What a stirring clarion call Paul issues to us today.

What does Paul mean by freedom? He does not mean that we can do anything we please. The word for that is license. Freedom vs. license is a helpful polarity when we are trying to define what Paul is saying about the spiritual journey. License means I can do whatever I want to; I don’t have to consider what God would want me to do, and I don’t have to consider the needs or feelings of anyone else.

Freedom is far different in Paul’s terms, and in the terms necessary for us to live a God-centered life. We are no longer bound by the Law, but now we are called to be in a living, growing relationship with God, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit. God is here, as close as our breath, and God is here to help. But God has also granted us the gift of free will. So God is not going to force us to do anything.

God loves each of us infinitely, more than we can ever imagine. But God is not going to force us to return that love. God wants us to choose to return that love and to share that love with each other and with those beyond, in fact, with everyone we meet and with everyone on this planet.

True freedom means being in relationship with God, seeking God’s will in everything we do. So there is a constant dialogue going on. The theologian Kenneth Kirk called this the “habit of recollection.” We are called to, as Kirk put it, “refer all questions to God.” It may sound ponderous, but somehow it isn’t. After a while, we get used to asking God, “Well, Lord, what do you want me to do about this?” and wait for that still small voice to guide us. If all of us are doing this, seeking and doing God’s will with God’s grace, we are going to be sharing God’s love with each other. If everyone on the planet is doing this, whether they be Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics or atheists, no matter what organized religion they do or don’t belong to, the shalom of God will be growing by leaps and bounds. For our brothers and sisters of other faiths and spiritual approaches, God and God’s shalom can be translated into other terms, such as the way of compassion toward others and toward our planet.

Paul talks about the difference between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh is not just our physical nature, the fact that we need to eat and drink, and that we need sleep, those are not negative things. The flesh, in Paul’s sense, is not limited to or even mainly focused on sexuality, though many have thought that was the case. The flesh, in Paul’s terms, can best be boiled down to our focus on autonomy and our selfishness. That can lead into all kinds of problems which may involve our physical nature and/or our sexuality, but those are not the focus.

I think of the song of several years ago, “I Did It My Way.” How about doing it God’s way? A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a book called The Shack. Reid Farrell commented on it in the Holy Trinity Newsletter, and the folks there eventually did their Lenten study on that book. Folks at St. James, Essex Junction, have also had a discussion group on it.

This book is about many things on many levels, and I wouldn’t even attempt to summarize it, but it impressed me very deeply when I first read it, and I have recently read it again. It gives a refreshing view of God which involves expressing the depth and breadth of God’s love for us. If I were going to try to summarize it without giving the story away, I might say that it’s about a man who undergoes a horrible tragedy, the worst of the worst, and sinks into the depths of despair and then has an opportunity to get to know God and to journey with God in a powerful way which starts this man on his own journey of transformation and healing.

Part of his journey is realizing that we can’t know the mind and heart of God. We’re just too small and limited. But when we begin to realize how much God loves us, even amidst all the brokenness in the creation, which is not what God wants for the creation, but, since God has given us free will, God can’t step in and clear up our messes—when we realize the depth of God’s love for us, and when we begin to let God into our lives, God lives in us and through us, and we begin to see things very differently and we begin to think and act very differently.

God wants to create communities of people who are living lives steeped in God’s love. God wants a planet full of people who are doing this, and, when that happens, God’s shalom will be here.

Paul calls us to “live in the Spirit.” Scholars tell us the literal translation of that would be to “walk in the Spirit.” Every move, every action, thought, word is guided by the love and grace of God. Communities that live that way show the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Communities who walk in the Spirit are like magnets. They are places of safety and nurture, and they are also communities of challenge and service and loving ministry to others and communities which live into and out of God’s mercy and justice.

We are called to ask God for help, to let God help us, to let go of our focus on autonomy and to actually allow God to live in and through us. We are called to do this as individuals and as a community, and then we are called to work with other communities who are doing the same thing.

Loving God, give us the grace to check in with you as constantly as possible, Help us to seek and do your will. Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 3 Proper 6C RCL June 13, 2010
1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2: 15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3

One theme running through our lessons today is the question: how do we treat the powerless, or how do those in power use their power?

In our first lesson, we hear the story of Naboth the Jezreelite, who owns a vineyard right next to the palace of King Ahab. Ahab wants that vineyard. He demeans Naboth by offering him a better vineyard. Scholars tell us that it would be very difficult to find a better vineyard, since that area was and still is, a prime area for such crops. Then he offers money, and he adds another stab at Naboth by saying he wants to make the vineyard into a vegetable garden. Naboth, of course, says he will not give up his precious inheritance.

King Ahab is disgusted and goes back to the palace and pouts like a two year old. Jezebel asks him what is wrong and he gives an inaccurate summary of events, whereupon Jezebel springs into action to insure the set up and death of Naboth. Ahab goes to take possession of the vineyard and is confronted with Elijah the prophet who tells Ahab that, because of his murderous behavior, calamity will fall upon him. If there were ever two people who use their power in abusive ways, those people would be Ahab and Jezebel.

In today’s gospel, Simon the Pharisee gives a banquet. Into the banquet, which is in the home of one who is most concerned with the laws of purity and proper decorum, comes a woman who breaks all the rules. We think she has had an earlier encounter with Jesus in which she has experienced his forgiveness. In any case, she comes in, falls at his feet, weeps, washes his feet with her tears, dries his feet with her hair, and then anoints his feet with expensive ointment. Simon says to himself that Jesus should know what kind of woman this is, and Jesus reads his mind and tells the story of the two debtors.

In terms of the purity laws, anyone looking on would know that this woman would have much to be forgiven. But, before he pronounces that forgiveness, which has already been given earlier, Jesus points out that she has been a far better hostess than Simon. One point that Jesus is making is that, if we are forgiven much, we love deeply, and, if we are forgiven little, we love little.

Paul is continuing to talk in the epistle about his process of transformation in Christ. He sums it up in the unforgettable words, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

Obviously, if we are in a position of power, we do not go to someone and try to cheat him out of his most precious possession, the rich land and productive vineyard which have been in his family for generations. We all cringe at the behavior of Ahab and Jezebel.

But the gospel story is much more subtle. If we were Simon, we might be saying, I give a formal banquet. Everything is done according to the best rules of religious propriety and etiquette, and here comes someone who does not even realize that she is not supposed to be here. She does not have the proper social standing to be attending, and then, after she makes a spectacle of herself, this Jesus person says that she extended warmer hospitality than I did!

Jesus says something very profound. If I know that I have been forgiven a great deal, if I have the sense that I have done some things I should not have done, and I have failed to do things I should have done, and in the process that I have hurt people, and if I also know deep in my heart that God has forgiven all of it and given me a totally fresh start, it is very easy for me to love God and thank God for all of God’s goodness and love and grace.

But, if, like Simon, I think that, by and large, I am close to perfect, after all I have followed all the rules and done everything right, and wear the right clothes and eat the right foods and do the right things, and, yes, God has forgiven me, but really there wasn’t that much to forgive, since I was just a smidge short of perfection in the first place, well, when we get right down to it, I really don’t need God that much, do I? Of course, I respect God as one should and all that, but love God? Love others in that sloppy way? Extend hospitality from the heart? Well, that borders on all that emotional drivel which I think is in such poor taste. This is my little impersonation of Simon, a man who does everything right but has no sense of his sinfulness, his brokenness, whereas, the woman who washes Jesus’ feet has a very clear sense of her brokenness.

Now, how does Paul’s message fit in here? He says that he has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer Paul who lives but Christ who lives in him. If we have had some life experiences which have allowed us to have a sense of our sinfulness, our brokenness, our need for forgiveness, our need for help to move toward wholeness, it is much easier for us to know that we have been forgiven much, and then to love much. With Paul that conversion was so profound that he became a new person. It is now Christ living in him. And that’s what happened to the woman who washed Jesus’ feet at the banquet. When we truly accept God’s forgiveness, we change our lives and behaviors. We are transformed. For some of us, like Paul, it was a dramatic about face. For many of us, it is more gradual.

For Simon, who sees no reason to change, no need on his part for forgiveness, the immediate prospects for transformation look pretty dim. On the other hand, there is always hope.

For Mary Magdalene, who has apparently undergone a radical move toward wholeness, and probably for the other women who are mentioned at the end of the gospel as disciples and supporters of Jesus, we can assume that their devotion to Jesus is rooted in their own transformative relationships with him.

Each of us has experienced the healing and grace of Christ in many ways. Each of us has a sense of God’s love and forgiveness. Each of us has a relationship with God which has nurtured us. That is why we are here and that is the most important thing we have to share—the power of God’s love, forgiveness, and healing. Like the women in today’s gospel, may we follow Jesus faithfully and may we share God’s love and healing. Amen.

Filed under: Sermons | Leave a comment »