Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Deacon Ken was the preacher this morning - and I thank him for that gift.

I will be on Vacation for the next two weeks (Ninth and Tenth Sundays after Pentecost) and so will not be posting sermons to this blog until Sunday, August 16 2009.

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – Year B (RCL) Proper 11, 2009
Jeremiah 23: 1 – 6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2: 11 – 22; Mark 6: 30 – 34, 53 – 56
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, July 19, 2009

VACATION IN GENNESARET

Let us pray: Restful God, in Jesus you called the disciples away from their busy labors in order to rest with you in the wilderness. You pulled your followers out of the tug and pull of the demands of ministry and led them into a remote place where they might find rest and restoration. Help us to realize that we do not run the world, that it is not within our power to make history turn out right, or to fix all that is wrong with ourselves and others. Help us, God, to remember that you are God and we are not. Give us the grace to enjoy your promised rest, this day and always. Amen.

(SUNG) COME FOLLOW ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

Here’s the first piece of Good News, or Gospel this morning. General Convention has concluded and the sky has not fallen, nor have the consituent members of the Anglican Communion risen up and marched off with the Archbishop of Canterbury to declare the American Church expelled. The secular and sensationalist press may want to entice readers and listeners by reducing detailed and carefully crafted legislation down to catchy headlines and sintilating sound bytes. I, however, want to read the two General Convention Resolutions that have been attracting all of the attention exactly as they were amended and approved by overwhelming majorities in both of the Houses of our bi-cameral system of governing that met in Anaheim, CA for the past two weeks. I believe that it is essential to our community to hear exactly what was discussed, prayed over, debated, prayed over, resolved, prayed over and approved by the House of Bishops by 70% majority vote and the House of Deputies by 72% during the meeting of the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church: First is Resolution D-205 dealing with the qualifications required for candidates to be considered for ordination in our Church – that Resolution reads as follows:

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm the continued participation of The Episcopal Church as a constituent member of the Anglican Communion; give thanks for the work of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 2008; reaffirm the abiding commitment of The Episcopal Church to the fellowship of churches that constitute the Anglican Communion and seek to live into the highest degree of communion possible; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention encourage dioceses, congregations, and members of The Episcopal Church to participate to the fullest extent possible in the many instruments, networks and relationships of the Anglican Communion; and be it further
Resolved, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm its financial commitment to the Anglican Communion and pledge to participate fully in the Inter-Anglican Budget; and be it further
Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm the value of "listening to the experience of homosexual persons," as called for by the Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988, and 1998, and acknowledge that through our own listening the General Convention has come to recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God" (2000-D039); and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church,; and that God's call to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention acknowledge that members of The Episcopal Church as of the Anglican Communion, based on careful study of the Holy Scriptures, and in light of tradition and reason, are not of one mind, and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.

Resolution C056 that deals with the participation of all of the baptized in all of the sacraments; carried by a 2/3 majority in both orders of the House of Deptuies and by the same majority in the House of Bishops. It reads as follows:

Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in consultation with the House of Bishops Theology Committee, collect and develop theological resources and liturgies of blessing for same-gender holy unions, to be presented to the 77th General Convention for formal consideration, and be it further

Resolved, that the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in consultation with the House of Bishops Theology Committee, devise an open process for the conduct of its work in this matter, inviting participation from dioceses, congregations, and individuals who are or have already engaged in the study or design of such rites throughout the Anglican Communion, and be it further

Resolved, that all bishops, noting particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church; and be it further

Resolved, that honoring the theological diversity of this Church, no bishop or other member of the clergy shall be compelled to authorize or officiate at such liturgies, and be it further

Resolved, that the Anglican Consultative Council be invited to conversation regarding this resolution and the work that proceeds from it, together with other churches in the Anglican Communion engaged in similar processes.

I am personally struck this morning by a creeping sense of delight and anticipation of my upcoming journey to Colorado and time to be spent with my birth family in “reunion”. Next Sunday the sermon will be delivered by our hard-working and dedicated Deacon. The following Sunday and the Sunday after that will be covered by Supply clergy as I spend my time and energy navigating the challenges and blessings of 8 of my siblings; their spouses, children and grandchildren in the beauty of the Rocky mountains and against the background of the Garden of the Gods. I think it wonderful then, that today’s Gospel text refers to Jesus and the disciples work in and around Galilee; and the practical matter of vacation.

We find ourselves this morning in the beauty and warmth of God’s creation surrounded by the sunlight and warm breezes of the Pacific Northwest summer. As we gather in that relaxed atmosphere of our church family during that time of year – I’m struck by the appropriateness of our pericope taken from the author of Mark’s telling of the Good News of God in Christ. In this story, which is the third in a row taken from that author’s sixth chapter; Jesus welcomes the twelve back from their missions of ministry and invites them into vacation time. That is not exactly the term which the author uses – and the intention is exactly the same. Jesus, we are told, hears the stories of the follower’s adventures in ministry – and then invites them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” We are told that many were coming and going about them and they had no leisure even to eat.

How well we know that busyness and activity in our lives. Our work is so pressing that we stay at our desks and gulp down a sandwhich, if we’re lucky, and continue on with the important tasks that we must accomplish from our “to do” lists. It is our human nature to measure our importance by our degree of “busyness”. I’d be glad to find sometime to talk with you – let me check my calendar. The reality of our lives is that our time beomes “filled up” with what we have to acomplish; with “things” which we believe will have great impact on our success or lack thereof in our careers or our social lives. Jesus knows all of this – our tendencies to busy ourselves and so loose focus on who is in charge, after all; to forget that the earth will continue to revolve in the solar system, not because of what we do which allows it too – rather because of what God allows to continue in spite of our fumbling attempts to control all which comes under our pervue.

(SUNG) COME FOLLOW ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

I find it quite telling that the first thing which Jesus has the disciples do after their first successful “job” which has been assigned – is to take a break, to intentionally withdraw from the busyness of the crowds and the activity of their surroundings and “rest a while.” It is a model which Jesus has given to them previously – by withdrawing to pray; and which will be given to them again when withdrawl is sought to prepare for crucifixion, death and resurrection. Always, it seems, Jesus commands us to take time away from everything and “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” That is a part of what we do, every Sunday when we gather in Jesus’ name to retreat from the busyness of our week and receive nurishment and sustenance to go out and continue the work which we are given to do.

So, if someone asks you what the sermon was about at Church this week, tell them it was about hearing the exact wording of the controversial resolutions out of our General Convention and also about the divine command to take a vacation. If you haven’t taken your vacation yet this summer, I wish you refreshment, renewal and rest. If you have taken your week or two – remember that in most places in this world the average vacation is six weeks in length – so perhaps it is time to think about what the next “deserted place” where you can rest and renew will be. When the good old Protestant work ethic which tugs at your psyche and says “the only way that this is going to get done correctly is if you do it – and do it now” – remember that God is in charge and that it is not our responsibility keep the earth rotating on its axis; or in the words of a prayer in the New Zealand prayerbook “What has been done, has been done. What has not been done, has not been done. Let it be.” Sabbath time is sacred time – God has declared that to be true. In the first story of our realtionship with God we are told that God – yes, even God took time away to rest. Jesus invites us into vacation time today – enjoy your time away in a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.

(SUNG) COME FOLLOW ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

Amen.

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost - My "Come to Jesus" Sermon

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 10 (RCL) Year B 2009
Amos 7: 7 – 15; Psalm 85: 8 – 13; Ephesians 1: 3 – 14; Mark 6: 14 – 29
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, July 12, 2009

WHO WILL WE BE – HOW WILL WE BECOME

Let us pray: God of our dreams and visions, help us to claim our ministry in this world. When we are frightened, give us direction; when we are stagnant urge us on. Help us to understand all that you have in store for us as we work to bring about the coming of your Kindom among us. Grant that we might always hear your voice in all that we proclaim in your holy name. Assure us that when we live out your vision for our lives you will be with us from beginning to end. Amen

(7:45 Service) I began with a story "telling on myself" about how I left the manuscript for my sermon at home and had to rush back, pick it up and drive back to the Church. I found a parking spot close to the front of the church and was begining to think I had "made it, without anyone noticing"; when suddenly as I rounded the corner to slip in the side entrance I came face to face with my Sr. Warden who must have wondered why I was so late in arriving for services as I was 7:40 AM!

(10:00 Service) I will climb up into the usually un-used pulpit and allow a few moments of light exchange. I will use my "blinking glassess" for some levity and then climb down off the pulpit and return to the usual area where I deliver my sermon.

Now that I have gained your attention – I wonder how many of you (by a show of hands) are aware that something was “up” this morning at St. Stephen’s and that a concerted effort begins to covey some important information about the future of this dynamic and special faith community? Well for those of you who were not aware; that is in fact, what my remarks this morning are going to be pointed toward. I don’t mean to imply that the scripture readings assigned for this Sixth Sunday after Pentecost are unimportant; or that I might not have some very wise and deeply relevant insights about them; only that we are not going to use our time this morning for that reflection because the Vestry and leadership of St. Stephen’s – the downtown Episcopal presence in Portland, OR for the past 146 years – has asked me to address some issues this morning that directly affect the future of this place and how we will continue to live out that presence and in what ways we need to re-fashion ourselves as the people of St. Stephen’s.

I’d like to start by sharing with you my own personal story about this place and what it has meant to me over the years. I arrived in Oregon in 1997 to begin a new relationship and a new life with my partner and my best friend, Michael. It was a pretty gusty move since he was the only person I knew – and I was leaving family, friends and a loving faith community that was more and more convincing me that I needed to seriously consider rekindling a long slumbering call to ordained ministry as a Priest in God’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Folks back home in the Diocese of Newark were pretty skeptical of my ability to do that in the Diocese of Oregon since the then Bishop was not supportive of LGBT folks being considered in that capacity. Then, I heard about the faith community of St. Stephen’s in downtown Portland and an ordination of an openly Gay male that happened in that parish; although the then Bishop did not participate in the ordination. That sounded like the kind of place where I could find hope for my journey. Next thing I knew was that St. Stephen’s had called The Rev. Larry Falkowski as their rector. Larry was an acquaintance of mine from the Diocese of Newark and I knew that he was supportive of the ministry of the Oasis of which I had been a member of the Board of Directors. So perhaps this community was one where I could find support. Michael and I found St. Michael and All Angels as a Church home and yet I knew that my relationship to St. Stephen’s was not over. Deep down in the core of my being (where we “know” things a much deeper level) I was sure that my link to the people and parish on the corner of 13th and Clay was still unfolding. Sure enough just about a year ago to this day – I began a conversation with the Search Committee that resulted in my being called as the Priest-in-charge of a Parish community that had dealt over the past five years with a plan for an 18 story high rise housing and church complex fully ready to break ground that was then brought to a grinding halt by a Bishop who was (well let’s just leave it at that); A visionary rector who had a massive stroke and eventually reluctantly retired; an embezzlement of a hundred thousand plus dollars – and despite all of that was still living out its ministry to God and the people of the downtown Portland community. Now I stand at the helm of this community and invite each and every one of you (present here this morning or not) to remember your St. Stephen’s story and how you came to discover what a wonderful place it was for you and yours. In that memory I invite you into a process wherein we can refocus and renew our vision of who we are as the people of God in a downtown urban Parish – and what God is calling us to do with our ministry and our resources for the next chapter in the history of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish. I truly believe that God has put me and each and every one of us in this place at this time to do the work that we are called to do, supported by each other to vision the next great thing for our ministry as baptized followers of the One we claim as our Savior and friend – Jesus the Christ.

(SUNG) WE CAN DO WHATEVER, WE WANT TO DO WHEREVER WE
WANT TO GO – IT’S UP TO US!

As most of you are aware we have been operating since our Annual Meeting this year from a budget that has a $60,000 gap in it. Tracking our income and expenses for the first six months of that budget does not indicate that gap closing and, in fact, it may be widening. At the present rate of expenditures the parish will effectively have spent through all of its reserves by the end of this fiscal year. While we remain in conversation with possible partners in a building project the feasibility of that project reaching fulfillment within the next year or two is little to none. The Building Operations Committee, under the faithful leadership of Father Palmer Pardington continues to seek out any and all possibilities for development; but that vision can no longer be the driving force for the mission and ministry of this Parish Community. We need to take the time to reevaluate our priorities; and to begin a conversation with our leadership and each other about who and what we will be as we move into the call of the Holy Spirit to bring to our Church and our neighborhood a welcome and a ministry of providing for the spiritual and physical hunger of all of God’s people within our reach.

The Vestry has been working and praying over the past six months about how we might engage the community in this work of envisioning our commitment to the Church and each other. After our service, at the coffee hour, you are welcome to talk with them and with each other about how we will move forward in this process. I’m going to briefly outline it for you now. Beginning this week small groups facilitated by Fran Anguilo, Jeanne Armstrong, Tom Bartlett, Mic Fleming, Sue Rossiter, Bob Tayler, and Mike Zula will set up time for 2 meetings that will help the groups to answer several questions that will lead to discernment of the mission and ministry that the community holds in deepest value. As a first step in this important work, I will call those individuals forward later in our service and “commission” them for the invaluable work on which they embark; as a community we will voice our support of them and the work they call us to. In August those small groups will reconvene and from the consensus of the discernment work will vision a way to implement that discernment into a workable plan of action. After those meetings are complete the leaders will gather with the Vestry and craft a plan of action that will be written with specific goals and actions and shared with the whole community at the end of September. After that we will be on our way to living out the mission and ministry of St. Stephen’s with a renewed energy and enthusiasm and a vision for our place in God’s Kindom essential to the people of downtown Portland and in cooperation with the greater Diocese and Episcopal Church. The details of this work lie in the hands of each and every one of us who are members and/or supporters of the work of God in this place; and I know that I speak for the vestry, staff and clergy when I say that with full confidence in God’s grace we will write this new chapter in our Parish’s history and hand our work over to the next generation of believers to continue God’s message of radical welcome to all who are hungry.

(SUNG) WE CAN DO WHATEVER, WE WANT TO DO WHEREVER WE
WANT TO GO – IT’S UP TO US!

US Anthropologist and faithful Episcopalian Margaret Mead is credited with the following “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Stirred by those words that have inspired generations of optimists, we believe that our future lies in our hands. God would ask of us as creatures made in the very image and likeness of our Creator – that we answer the call to carry out the plan of salvation by contributing our part in cooperation with others who vision a world far better than the one we have been given. Ours is an age of great promise and great challenge. Visionary leaders throughout our human history have encouraged and cajoled us to become all that we dream we can be; and the way toward that goal for the majority of us in Christian community is through the work of the Body of Christ, the Church. That work which has been lived out on the corner of 13th Avenue and Clay Street in downtown Portland, OR since 1870 is part of the very fabric of who we are and what we do – and so the call that I have been charged with giving you this morning is really a continuation of the work of God done on God’s behalf by countless others who have come before us and who knows how many others that are just waiting to join us; we simply have to figure out how to invite them in. I want to close my remarks this morning by “borrowing” a phrase that my wise Sr. Warden shared with Deacon Ken and myself at dinner earlier last week. Mic was talking about another search process that he was part of in the Diocese of California – but I think it fits perfectly with the work we will do together in the next months and so I offer it to you; “God knows what the ministry of St. Stephen’s will look like going forward; its only up to us to figure out what God already knows!” Let the Church, the Body of Christ, give me an Amen!

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 9

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 9 – Year B (RCL) 2009
Ezekiel 2: 1 – 5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12: 2 – 10; Mark 6: 1 – 13
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, July 5, 2009

HOME COMING AND HOME LEAVING

Let us pray: Jesus we look to welcome you into our lives and into our hearts. How often we neglect to invite you into the ordinary and perhaps mundane moments of our days and nights. What is there in the average day that God would want to participate in with me? We leave our prayer and adoration for you here in your house and neglect to bring it with us into our houses. You took upon you our nature and by so doing sanctified humanity and placed it into a higher realm. Help us to recognize you in all of our activities and actions – keep us mindful of your call to spread your good news not just in this place on Sunday, but also in everyplace on every day. Amen.

(SUNG) IN MY LITTLE TOWN, I GREW UP BELIEVING
GOD KEEPS HIS EYE ON US ALL
AND HE USED TO LEAN UPON ME WHEN I PLEDGED
ALLEGIANCE TO THE WALL.
LORD I RECALL
IN MY LITTLE TOWN.

How many of you here today were born and raised in this town? That probably closely represents represents what is true for the majority of of natural born American citizens. According to Census Bureau statistics only 60 percent of Americans still live in the State in which they were born – and those figures change dramatically when one looks at individual states or cities. For example, in “melting pot” places like the borough of Queens, in NY and the city of Los Angeles, in California – less than half of the residents were born in-state. For individuals living in Colorado and Arizona only one in three people were born there and in Nevada whose Los Vegas metropolitan area is the fastest growing in the nation, that number of natives still living in their hometown drops to one in five. Our world is markedly different from perhaps that of our parents, and certainly from that of our Grandparents. Those of us who grew up with the “Leave it to Beaver” image of family and home and neighborhood have had to change our perceptions of all of those social structures, and as for the realiity of that portrayal, I know that my mother never cooked dinner in high heels and pearls!

What we encounter as part of the Gospel message this morning in the continuation of the author of Mark’s account is the story of the return of the local boy made good who is, nonetheless, shunned by those who knew him best. Jesus, after performing great signs of power and witness in the regions of both the Hebrews and of the Gentiles, visits Nazareth his hometown. I think that part of the reason why this Gospel story resonates with us is because it presents a pretty universal human experience that most, if not all of us have had to deal with in our lives. “Just who does he think he is?” “I knew her back when she was a snot nosed little kid running around in diapers.” The words of Thomas Wolfe “you can’t go home again” – seem to ring loudly in this episode from Jesus’ life and ministry in Nazareth of Galilee. Jesus comes back to the hometown crowd leading the twelve disciples and begins to preach in the temple. Having had no “formal” instruction, the fact that Jesus has “disciples” marks him as a Rabbi, and so it is natural for the Rabbi to preach to the gathered community at the Sabbath gathering. We are told that “many who heard him were astounded.” Most who heard this preaching and teaching would have known that Jesus had not trained at the feet of any rabbi and so, we are told, come these remarks: “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!” Word would surely have spread about the Gerasene demoniac, the hemmoraging woman and the daughter of Jarius; incredible deeds of power done through Jesus’ hands via the faith of those who believed.

(SUNG) AND AFTER IT RAINS THERE’S A RAINBOW
AND ALL OF THE COLORS ARE BLACK,
IT’S NOT THAT THE COLORS AREN’T THERE,
IT’S JUST IMAGINATION THEY LACK
EVERYTHINGS THE SAME BACK – IN MY LITTLE TOWN

Jesus’ power is manifest in the hearts and minds and bodies of those who believe. Is it that Jesus cannot work signs of power in those who do not believe – or just that Jesus does not wish to expend valuable time and energy with those who are unable or unwilling to take the leap of faith necessary to accept the kindom of God which is at hand in the life, death and resurrection of the radical rabbi from Nazareth? I’m sure that greater theological minds than mine have probed this question and posited answers, and I invite you to search them out if you truly need to have answers laid out for you. As with most of the questions which the ministry and mystery of Jesus raises for us – the spiritual benefit lies not in someone else’s answer, however learned it might be. The thoughts and ruminations of our spiritual ancestors in matters theological and Christological are of value only in as much as we are able to incoporate them into our own understanding of the ministry of the local Nazareth rabbi who changed the face of the known world by incarnating the power of the God who created it. When Jesus visits the old hometown and is rejected by those who in their smugness are unable to vision anything other than the carpenter son of Mary – the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon; Jesus allows them their disbelief and continues on with the ministry which will witness to the coming of the kindom of God among them. This was not a Gospel story which was read very often in the Church of my youth. Part of the reason for that is the Roman Church’s belief in the perpetual viginity of the mother of Jesus. I always found it interesting that Good Sisters of St. John the Baptist could take this pericope from the Gospel of Mark and explain that the author was referring to the “figurative” rather than the “literal” wording around Jesus’ brothers and sisters; and that they also could be translated as “cousins”. I said I found it interesting, I didn’t say that I found it plausible, and my limited knowledge of classical Greek does not allow that word to be translated as “cousin”.

Jesus’ response to those who cannot afford him consideration past their knowledge of his questionable parentage from the un-wed teenaged Mary and his early trade as the carpenter’s apprentice of Joseph is, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and their own house.” The author goes on to tell us that Jesus was unable do deeds of any power there – except to lay hands on a few sick people and cure them. Jesus is amazed at their unbelief, we are told. I think we all can share in that experience of being discounted based solely on circumstances of our births, rather than celebrated for the aptitudes and talents with which we have been gifted by the God who loves us all as children. Many of us share in the pain of being told that we aren’t enough, based on our gender, race, nationality, economic status, class or orientation. Jesus’ response to that pain is to move on and carry the message to those who will be willing to hear it and work toward the coming of the Kindom of God among them.

(SUNG) IN MY LITTLE TOWN, I NEVER MEANT NOTHING,
I WAS JUST MY FATHER’S SON.
SAVING MY MONEY, DREAMING OF GLORY
TWITCHING LIKE THE FINGER ON THE TRIGGER OF
A GUN.

Where do we suppose might be the hometown for Jesus were we gifted by the presence of the Word made flesh among us in mortal body today? I would like to think and believe that the Church would be Jesus’ hometown today. Certainly in the Church Jesus would feel comfortable and not be limited by perceptions of external circumstances limiting the power of God among us. However, if we are honest with ourselves would Jesus be welcomed in the Church of the 21st Century? Would Jesus recognize that the work we were called to do as apostles and disciples of the Christ is being lived out in the ministry of the Church? I think that the report card on that would be mixed. Yes, in some places in the Church good and right work is being done in the name of the One we claim as our leader – as the head of our Church and the author of our salvation. In many other places Jesus would be challenged to recognize the work of God in our religious institutions. “See how they love each other” was a comment often spoken about the believers in the early years of the Church. I wonder how many non Christians would look at the Church today an utter that comment? As we bicker and blame each other, as we question each other’s orthodoxy and judge each others beliefs, I think that Jesus would find it hard to settle in our Church and make it hometown base. We are called to make the Church the example of love and welcome which Jesus failed to find in the hometown synagogue in Nazareth. We need to be a place where Jesus can work mighty deeds of power because of our faith in God and in each other. We will always be challenged in the Church to live out the Gospel message that we proclaim with integrity and faithfilled witness. The Church is the Body of Christ in our own age giving witness to the ministry of God among us – and we are human and will fall short of the mark of perfection which is our aim. Sin is a reality in our lives and in our Church. God has continued to raise up prophets for the Church just as God has done in ages past from our religious roots with the people of Israel as we heard in the calling of the prophet Ezekiel, to the gift of the prophetic ministry of the Christ, to the present day. Who those prophets are may be different for each of us in our own vision of the Church – and who they are for me are such stirring and challenging voices as Barbara Brown Taylor, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Romero, William Sloan Coffin, John O’Donohue, John Shelby Spong and Bono. Each of us needs to take prophetic responsibility for our piece of the Church to do all in our power to live out the call to discipleship and make God’s Church a place where all are able to see the hand of God guiding the hands of all of God’s children in working toward making in reality the kindom come among us.

Amen.

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 8

Having just returned from the National Episcopal/Lutheran Campus Ministry Conference in Chicago, IL - I had this Sunday "off" and The Rev. William North (Associate Clergy) presided and preached!

Third Sunday after Pentecost

Third Sunday after Pentecost – Year B, Proper 7 (RCL) 2009
Job 38: 1 – 11; Psalm 107: 1 – 3, 23 – 32; 2nd Corinthians 6: 1 – 13; Mark 4: 35 – 41
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Faith of the Mustard Seed vs. the Fear of the Unknown

In the name of the God who calls out from the whirlwind of our deepest ignorance’s and asks “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth”? In the name of the God who calls the Apostle Paul with the assurance; “At an acceptable time I have listened to you and on a day of salvation I have helped you”. In the name of the God who calms the ferocious storm and asks; “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” In the name of the God who speaks through us, the truth. Amen.

(SUNG) FEAR NOT, FEAR NOT,
FEAR NOT, FEAR NOT.

Some of the earliest Christians adopted a simple drawing of a boat with a cross for a mast as the symbol of the Church. In an age of persecutions from the outside and controversy and conflict on the inside, in their experience, the emerging church must have seemed like a boat on a storm-tossed sea. Recalling the story of Jesus' calming of the sea, like those first disciples in the boat, the early Christians must have joined in their desperate prayer, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

Little has changed in the intervening years. The winds of change and the waters of chaos continue to beat hard on the worldwide church and the people of faith. People of Faith are still being martyred in shocking numbers in tribal, ethnic, and religious wars around the world. At home, the church is fiercely divided around issues of authority, liturgy, sexuality, and cultural diversity, so that deputies to each successive General Convention arrive with feelings of foreboding as they look to the business before them with suspicious eyes, preparing to build alliances of power to bolster their respective sides. Today, the prayer of many in the church is: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

Our private lives are not spared stress and storm as our individual little boats are tossed about by the waves of global economic uncertainty and change, planetary devastation and destruction from the abuse of our natural resources; collapse of order and civility due to oppressive political regimes; or the ravages of war, divorce, sickness, and death. Hardly a week goes by that we do not face the fearsome realities of these events, either impacting us personally or our neighbors or our friends in the church, and nightly the troublesome images of television news intrude into our homes from the larger world. "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

In today's Gospel according to the author of Mark’s account, Jesus calms the wind and the waves and says to the tense disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" I have no doubt that Jesus surely intended the link between faith and fear. The opposite of faith is not doubt or unbelief; those tend to be doctrinal differences. No, the opposite of faith more often as not is fear. We fear the unknown. We fear the undiagnosed lump in the breast, the elevated PSA or the persistent yet unexplained cough. We fear Swine Flu or, the next indictable virus that will morph into a global killer. We fear losing control of our bodies our minds and our health because of aging. We worry about how changes in politics, technology, or the economy will influence our jobs; and we worry about the income from our savings and retirement funds which seem to be disappearing before our eyes as we watch helpless to control the downward trend. Fear is like waves ever seeking to knock us off our footing -- our faith footing.

(SUNG) IF YOU ARE LONELY, FEAR NOT;
IF WINDS BLOW HARD IN THE COLD TIMES, FEAR NOT.
FOR I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, FEAR NOT.
ALWAYS AND FOREVER, FEAR NOT.

Allow me to share a story with you; this story, one of faith in a seemingly fearful situation, was told by a Presbyterian minister. He told of his days as a Navy submariner in the Pacific during World War II. "We would often come under depth charge attack by Japanese destroyers," he said. "The other sailors would be trembling with fear, while I just leaned back and read a comic book. One of them asked how I could be so calm. I explained to him that in my childhood I had very little supervision from my parents, so I spent many hours each day at the New Jersey shore. Sometimes a huge breaker wave would catch me by surprise and toss me under the water, rolling me in the sand. But I learned when I would just relax thousands of air bubbles like the fingers of God would catch me up and lift me to the surface. Now, whenever I find myself in trouble, I just relax and wait for the fingers of God to reach under me and lift me up."

Faith is an ever persistent striving toward life. According to psychologist Erik Erikson, it is a confidence that is typically acquired very early in life when a child learns to expect her or his environment and the people in it to be reliable and trustworthy. During the Cold War, when we were all living with the possibility of nuclear annihilation, some researchers interviewed children to see how worried they were from the threat of nuclear war. What they discovered was that the children with the least amount of fear were those whose parents were active in nuclear disarmament efforts, or who regularly attended church, or who were deeply involved in the social justice issues of their communities. These parents did not feel hopeless in the face of tremendous challenges. They invested themselves in actions to change the world around them and remained optimistic that what they could contribute would make a difference. As a result, the attitudes of the parents infected the emotional and intellectual development of their children. These children did not feel helpless. Rather, they saw that their parents and their church and the other involved citizens of their community maintained faith and were doing something toward resolving the problems of the world. Their faith would help to overcome their fear.

I have a best friend who, several years ago, within a period of three weeks, lost both of his parents, within the period of another few years a favorite and beloved aunt died. It dawned on him at the time that all of the people in his life who loved him unconditionally were dead, and that he was out in the front of the line as it were all alone. About the same time, his business began to decline and his business partner of many years was no longer interested in continuing; his plans for succession were dashed when an employee who was being groomed for leadership in the corporation decided to change careers and offered his resignation. In those painful and challenging months, my friend painfully and slowly rediscovered his own definition of faith. I share it with you: Faith is the simple trust that life still can be good despite the fact that it is very painful and difficult. Out of the worst of experiences that my friend could have imagined, he found many little bubbles of love, joy, and hope in the form of friends, family, and church lifting him upward like the fingers of God. And the worst year of his life was followed by what he declares to have been one of the best years of his life wrapped in the arms of the God who brought him safely through the storm to the other side of the shore.

(SUNG) I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, FEAR NOT.
ALWAYS AND FOREVER, FEAR NOT.

"Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" In these rather impatient words directed to the disciples, Jesus brings into focus the polarities of faith and fear. A gifted and prophetic voice of our time who recently passed from us, William Sloan Coffin has this to say in his last book, The Courage to Love, “Fear distorts truth, not by exaggerating the ills of the world…but by underestimating our ability to deal with them…while love seeks truth, fear seeks safety.” Faith is a stance and how we stand up to those things that would threaten us and how we manage our fears makes all the difference. In the midst of troubles, try reaching up your hand to God and saying, "Help!" And when you reach your hand out to others around you and say, "Help!" the fingers of God will never fail to reach down and lift you into new and reassuring experiences of God's grace. AMEN.

Second Sunday after Pentecost - Pride Sunday in Portland

Second Sunday after Pentecost – Year B (RCL) 2009
Ezekiel 17: 22 – 24; Psalm 92: 1 – 4, 12 – 15; 1 Corinthians 5: 6 – 17; Mark 4: 26 – 34
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, June 14, 2009

WONDERFULLY AND MARVELOUSLY CREATED

Let us pray: God of all creation you have made everything that dwells upon this earth and have called it good. When you created humankind in your image you called it very good; and yet we have taken upon our selves the judgment of our value or lack thereof in your creation. Help us to see that you intend for us, your children, the full measure of dignity and value on your earth and in your heaven. Teach us the lessons of your parables that even in the smallest of seeds are contained the greatest of blossoms. Remind us that in respecting the dignity of every human being – is the commandment to love ourselves so that we might carry out the call to love others in your name. Amen.

(SUNG) JUST AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA, BUT THAT THY BLOOD
WAS SHED FOR ME, AND THAT THOU BIDS’T ME COME TO
THEE, O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME.

Before we begin to explore in a little more depth the Gospel lesson that we heard this morning, I need to share a little history of my own with you. I share this because I think that it is essential to hold up our history and continue to educate those who have little or no experience with who we are as a people. Let me share with you a brief history lesson – the history of my tribe that can help explain why this day is celebrated.

The Stonewall Inn was a nondescript two-story building at 53 Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square in New York City’s Greenwich Village. 40 years ago this month, June 27th, 1969 was not an average Friday night at this Mafia run dive where the watered down drinks were often sold in not particularly clean glasses. Earlier that week, on Tuesday night, the police had raided the Stonewall (a frequent occurrence in gay bars at the time). Several plainclothes officers entered the bar around 2:00 AM on the 27th. Of the approximately 200 people ejected from the Stonewall that night five (5) who were dressed as women were detained. After being released from the bar the patrons were joined by another approximately 200 of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Bisexual and Transgender people who were in the village that hot summer night (many who had been in the borough of Queens at the wake of Judy Garland). Tensions began to grow. The festive applause minded crowd’s mood started to change once the paddy wagon arrived and 3 drag queens, the bartender and the doorman were loaded inside. Tensions continued to rise. Angry shouts rose from the crowd. A newspaper reporter, the deputy inspector and the police officers that had conducted the raid retreated inside the bar and bolted the heavy front door. Someone threw a rock, which broke a window. A large group grabbed and dislodged a parking meter and began battering the entrance door open. Beer cans and bottles hurled in; a uniformed police officer was hit with something under his eye. The police became furious and located a fire hose; the idea being to ward off the madding crowd until reinforcements could arrive. Someone in the crowd yelled, “. . .let’s get some gas.” A stream of liquid was poured in from the broken window. The reporter, Howard Smith for the Village Voice writes, “. . . A flaring match follows. Deputy Inspector Pine is not more than ten feet away from the broken window. But he didn’t fire; the sound of sirens coincides with the swoosh of the flames where the lighter fluid was thrown.” Later, Pine states that he didn’t shoot because he had heard the sirens in time and felt no need to kill someone if help was arriving. It was that close.

The modern Human Rights struggle for Gay and Lesbian people was born that night – and so this Sunday of June is celebrated here in Portland and in other cities around the world as Gay Pride Day. The Spirit works in strange and mysterious ways. Out of that tribe and that people, God called me and many hundreds of thousands of others like me to live in dignity and integrity, and to witness to the good news of God in Christ. We who have been part of that struggle march to remind ourselves and others that our value and integrity have not always been so evident in our Churches, Mosques, Synagogues and Temples. We gather as members of this and other faith communities to witness to our growth as Children of God and to invite those who remain marginalized by fear and prejudice to know that there is a place for them in God’s Kindom.

The God of our understanding, who knew us before we were knit in our mother’s womb, calls all of us, from every tribe and language and people and nation. It is a powerful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! This call to follow Jesus was never promised to be easy. What was promised is that Jesus will be with us on every step of the journey. That promise is fulfilled here in this embracing and affirming Christian community of St. Stephen’s when we are fed with the “Bread of life and the Cup of salvation.” It is also fulfilled in the quiet moments of contemplation and prayer when God’s Spirit is breathed upon us and guides us through the moments of fear and uncertainty when it is that Spirit who calls and says “You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased”

(SUNG) JUST AS I AM, THOUGH TOSSED ABOUT, WITH MANY A
CONFLICT MANY A DOUBT; FIGHTINGS AND FEARS WITHIN,
WITHOUT, O LAMB OF GOD I COME, I COME.

In the Gospel narrative this morning we return to the author of Mark’s account of the good news and begin to explore the parabolic teachings of Jesus and the metaphors created to explain the Kindom of God. I think it is truly fitting that the first of those metaphors is that of the seed. All forms of life were believed to be contained within the seed; the tinniest speck of life was cast upon the ground – and not quite knowing how the sower would witness the miracle of new birth and growth. Even the smallest known seed of the mustard shrub would yield a harvest of great growth and bounty within which the creatures of God could take refuge. That, says Jesus, is the truth of the Kindom of God. Jesus has taken the time and tenderness to reveal in metaphoric and parabolic story how and when God’s Kindom is to be made manifest in God’s world, and that it is through us and those that came before us and those that will come after us that God’s Kindom becomes reality on earth as it is in heaven. As we listen and digest the Word of God, made flesh who dwells among us – we learn in simple, yet profound ways that God’s Kindom is not distant, but near at hand; that God’s Kindom is not obvious, but subtly hidden in the everyday moments of our lives; that God’s Kindom is not static and rigidly defined, but ever becoming and manifesting itself in our actions aligned with God’s purposes; and finally that God’s Kindom is not limited by our perceptions of who is worthy and who is not, but rather it is a Kindom continuing to make room for all of God’s creation of every tribe and language and people and nation. No one is left outside of the circle; no one is denied the feast at the banquet table – and everyone is called and challenged to live out the good news of God – because as Paul tells the early Christian community at Corinth “so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

(SUNG) JUST AS I AM; THOU WILT RECEIVE; WILT WELCOME, PARDON
CLEANSE, RELIEVE, BECAUSE THY PROMISE I BELIEVE
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME.

Amen.

Trinity Sunday

Like all good Episcopal Rectors - I gave the responsibility of preaching on Trinity Sunday to my Deacon!

Feast of Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost – Year B (RCL) 2009
Ezekiel 37: 1 – 14; Psalm 104: 25 – 35, 37b; Acts 2: 1 – 21, John 15: 26 – 27, 16: 4b – 15
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, May 31, 2009

BREATH OF GOD – LIFE FOR THE WORLD

Let us Pray: Spirit of truth breath upon us this Pentecost day and always. May your Spirit break into the rooms we shut ourselves up within and set us free. Help us to claim the truth which is plainly spoken – even if not in the language with which we are comfortable. On this birthday of your Church, may we hear the voice of your Holy and life giving Spirit as it speaks in the mouths of all who believe and proclaims your Good News of hope and salvation. Fire us up to live out the gifts given to each of us according to our needs. Send forth your Spirit and we are created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

(SUNG) BREATHE ON ME BREATH OF GOD
FILL ME WITH LIFE ANEW
THAT I MIGHT KNOW WHAT THOU DOST KNOW
AND DO WHAT THOU WOULD’ST DO.

Today is the feast of Pentecost which is, actually, a festival feast carried over from our religious roots in the people of Hebrews and celebrated fifty days after the Passover feast. The origin of the word “pentecost” is acutally the Greek meaning “the fiftieth day” and commemorated the Hebrew feast of “weeks” when the first fruits of the corn harvest were presented. In our Christian story as told by the author of Luke/Acts it is the day of Pentecost and the twelve (with Bartholomew having been freshly added to their ranks) are gathered once again in what is possibly the same “upper room” where Jesus had made several post resurecction appearances. This day, however, they are not expecting to see Jesus in their midst as these events take place after the Ascension which had been narrated in the previous Chapter. Here they are once again. Their teacher and mentor has given all that was possible to give and then gone ahead of them. A promise was left, however, as we hear in the Author of John’s account of the Good News – that “an Advocate” as the word is translated in the New Revised Standard Version would be sent. That word is the Greek “paracletos” and is often translated in our english texts as “paraclete” or “comforter”. The promise was that a force or guide would be among them as their continuing teacher and support in the absence of the Christ. That force is encountered on this festal day as “…a sound like the rush of a violent wind”, and “…divided tongues, as of fire” which are used to describe the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit who is credited on this day as giving birth to the Church.

(SUNG) BREATHE ON ME, BREATH OF GOD
UNTIL MY HEART IS PURE,
UNTIL WITH THEE I WILL ONE WILL,
TO DO AND TO ENDURE.

This first Christian scripture description of the coming of God’s Holy Spirit taken from the Author of Luke/Acts account is a truly Jewish phenomenon. The twelve, hearing from heaven the sound like the rush of a violent wind which fills the entire house where they were sitting – then experience divided tongues, as of fire appearing among them and resting on each of them. The only possible thought in my brain at that moment would have been, “drop and roll” from my days in elementary school when that was the advice if one happened to find ones self on fire. However, in this midst of this wind and fire and Spirit – the gift of speech in languages other than their own as the Spirit gave them the ability – is displayed. Here we are told that there were “devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem”, who were astonished at these Galileans who suddenly were speaking in languages which they would have had absolutely no exposure to – and making sense apparently. All who spoke the many and myriad languages then represented in the known world – heard the message being preached on that day in their native language by these back water fisherman from that God forsaken area in the hicks called Galilee. What in God’s world is going on? Then the head Galilean begins to preach and preach he does, calling on the voice of the Prophet Joel to fortify their devout Jewish minds and remind them that “in these last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Note that at this point in the story of the developing group of followers there is no hint that the message of Jesus is to be shared with the gentiles. However, if we look into the text – both Peter’s words and the words of the Hebrew prophet Joel – the all inclusive and always expansive Gospel – will make it known that there are no boundaries to God’s Holy Spirit….even upon slaves, both men and women! The Good News will not lay hidden long in the confines of the people of Israel.

Here’s the thing, though, when the Holy Spirit breaks in – She is very difficult to contain! I use the feminine pronoun there very definitely. I do not mean to restrict God’s Holy Spirit to a specific gender – either female or male – rather I wish to shock you, my listeners, into hearing the power of this message new, fresh and different than we may have experienced it previously, because I want us all to realize that Pentecost happens anew each time we experience the story. God’s Holy and Life Giving Spirit is not contained to the walls of this Church, nor is the message of new life in that Spirit meant to be heard by our ears only. The eternal temptation of religious people and religious institutions is to lock God up and keep God out of the present where God can be a downright dangerous threat to our way of doing things. Churches often are tempted to encapsulate God in our customs and traditions. Some very good and pious folks are tempted to confine the Divine to a space between the first page of Genesis and the last page of Revelation. We tend to want to stuff God into the limits of what we have known, as if God can be fenced by the parameters of our experience. We formalize and regulate, institutionalize and theologize, and in the end, if we don't watch out, we create "perfectly respectable" religion, precise, predictable, familiar, comfortable, lovely and graceful even, but scared to death of anything as unpredictable and unregulated as the Holy Spirit.

I, like all of us, have come to love the way we do church here at St. Stephen’s. I love the laid-back committees, the thoughtful and inclusive mission statement, even the tightly-scripted Annual Meeting. I love the structure and formal dignity of our worship, the intimacy of our Lady Chapel and the pomp and dignity of our processional cross and smoking incense. I love the services of Holy Week. Let's face it, we're a traditional liturgical (leaning on the “high” side) kind of church. And that's OK. But our challenge, is to dance our great old traditional liturgical dance with Spirit, to dance liturgical church fresh, to dance it with life and passion and vision. Not necessarily with some new and outlandish dance. No, we can awaken our own hearts and the hearts of those whom we welcome as the Christ in our midst with a good old traditional liturgical dance, but done with Spirit and a few new steps. This challenge has challenged our Church with each new revelation of the Holy Spirit that our General Convention has heard in the past 50 years since the great and influential liturgical renewal movement swept through our Church and through the Church of our sisters and brothers in the Roman tradition. Through the invitation that the Episcopal Church Welcomes You – whoever you are; black or white, female priest or male altar guild, Rite I eight o’clocker or Jazz Mass ecumenist – you have a place at God’s Holy Table.

And that is just the challenge always before the church, before the whole Christian Church in general, before the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and before St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish in downtown Portland, OR. It's the challenge before our baptised members, vestries, search committees, convention delegates, deacons priests and bishops: to dance the old steps in a way that that is so fresh and spirited that some will rejoice and others will want to silence our son’s and daughters who are prophesing, our young men who are seeing visions and our old women who are dreaming dreams. On this Pentecost day we dare to pray "Come, Holy Spirit." We pray that God will break out of the confines of the past and be alive in this very moment. We pray that God’s Holy and life giving Spirit will transform our well-loved routine. We pray that same Spirit will coach us to dance the set steps and familiar movements afresh and anew.

(SUNG) BREATHE ON ME BREATH OF GOD,
BLEND ALL MY SOUL WITH THINE,
UNTIL THIS EARTHLY PART OF ME
GLOWS WITH THY FIRE DIVINE

But, should our Pentecost prayers for God’s Holy Spirit actually be answered, be prepared, I warn you, be prepared. Sometimes we'll want to listen with baited breath and dance with pure abandon, and sometimes we'll want to pull the plug before it's too late. In the name of the creating Father and of the redeeming Son and of the sustaining Holy Spirit, especially today, the Holy Spirit. Amen.