Fourth Sunday in Lent - Year C

Fourth Sunday in Lent – Year C (RCL)
Joshua 5: 9 – 12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5: 16 – 21; Luke 15: 1 – 3, 11b – 32
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, March 14, 2010

HEARING AND TELLING OUR STORIES ANEW

Let us Pray: Shape us Holy God into the image and likeness of you – so that we may become that which you truly desire us to be. Help us to see in the familiar stories the unexpected as well as the comfortable truths. Wend into our hearts the power of your reconciling love for us and for all of your creation made new in the power of your suffering, death and resurrection. Amen.

(SUNG) PRODIGAL SON HE’D BEEN AWAY A WHILE
HE WAS MAKING HIS WAY BACK HOME NOW, OVER MANY
A RAGGED MILE.
WHEN HE FINALLY CROSSED THE RIVER, AND HIS FATHER
SAW HIM NEAR;
THERE WAS A JOYFUL SOUND FOR ALL THE WORLD TO HEAR.

It has been a full and fascinating week for me, and I reach this Sunday liturgy filled and full of the lessons, learning and life experiences that are a part of the totality that we bring with us to our shared work in Christian community. I am blessed to have an opportunity to hear and reflect with others during the week the texts that we will use for our gathering in prayer and worship on Sundays. My sharing of those texts helps to shape what God might be calling me to say as I listen to what others have taken from their own collective memories of the stories and experiences that have shaped their lives. On Tuesday we gathered at Terwilliger Plaza to celebrate our once monthly service of Holy Communion with some of our parish family who reside there. We share Eucharist with each other and with God and then we gather to share a lunch in the dinning hall. These wise women humble me with their depth of life experience and the wisdom that has garnered in their lives. I often come away from that gathering grateful for the chance to spend time and fellowship with a group that has begun to “bond” in many ways – but also very aware of the limit that our short time puts on our ability to deeply delve into the Gospel narrative and search out what it might mean for us in our own lives. After this gathering on Tuesday I drove down to Salem to attempt a pastoral visit with a member of our Parish family whom Deacon Ken mentioned in his remarks last Sunday. The demons of institutional apathy raised their ugly voices and I was not able to actually see him; but I was able at least to get a working phone contact that will provide me with periodic updates on his condition and the readiness of his spirit to receive visits. I find it truly amazing that all of this fuss is being made over a little parish priest who wants to visit with a troubled parishioner and share the blessings of presence and comfort with him. I wonder what the story of the prodigal son’s return would say to Edmundo! On Thursday I gathered with the folks at Campus Ministry at PSU and we shared communion and a wicked good tomato basil bisque and talked about the differences that folks heard in the Prodigal Son story based on which character they most closely identified with when they heard it this time. I was thrilled to have the perspective of young folks just beginning their adult Christian journey to compare with the wise women of Terwilliger who are nearing the end of theirs. It is amazing to me how folks hear the stories of our tradition and how they speak to us at different levels in our lives and this time did not disappoint. The young women who were at PSU tended to compare the story of the Prodigal Son with the story of Martha and Mary. Identifying with the strongly dominate male characters in Luke’s telling of this parable from the mouth of Jesus was not as comforting to these young women as it was to the guys gathered around the table on Thursday evening. In contrast, the women at Terwilliger more closely identified with the reconciling and welcoming love of the father in the narrative – it seemed to them that the whole story was about the welcome home and the nurturing care of a Father for both of his children equally and with very different needs. The young men at PSU on the other hand tended to identify more closely with the prodigal who was out in the world squandering the inheritance of his youth and looking for a way to work himself back into the graces of his father whom he loved deeply and was achingly aware of having damaged their relationship. What we hear and how we hear it can be deeply influenced by the role we most clearly identify with in the story. In this realization grew the seed of the message that I was pulling from the story and how it related to my life at this point in my adult Christian journey and I surmise the same is true for you.

If any preacher worth her or his salt hasn’t preached a least one sermon on the story of the Prodigal Son or the Beneficent Father however you want to focus it – then they just haven’t been preachin’ long enough! I myself have reflected on this parable from our Gospel texts at least 5 times so far in my short career. Part of our challenge is to find ways to tune our ears and our hearts to hear the stories which we know so well and pull out from them something new which they have to say to us each time that we hear them. What I heard new this time was the powerful message of reconciliation to which the prodigal, the older brother and the father are all called. Old wounds and grudges which have to be released in order to be fully present to the celebration and welcome home offered; perceptions and expectations which need to be examined and released after we have been forgiven – and can then focus on forgiving others. Here’s a piece of the mystery and grace of reconciliation – when I am reconciled to you both of us become healed even if you are unaware that I have offered our struggle into God’s hands and asked for the grace of reconciliation – still a piece of us becomes healed and space grows in our relationship so that grudges can move out and God can move in. Several folks have contacted me in the last weeks seeking an opportunity to join with me in the sacramental rite of Reconciliation of a Penitent. For those of you who may not be familiar with this rite of the Church it follows the form of Confession from our Roman Catholic roots. In this penitential season of Lent we look to find reconciliation in our hearts and our souls; and to repent and return. As a result of the introspection and personal reflection we have been invited to during these forty days, many seek to find a way to right their relationship with God and this sacramental gives the opportunity to confess our sins and receive the absolution and remission that is the gift and privilege of the Church.

So in this liturgical year when we hear the story of the Prodigal Son we pause to consider what the message is that we take to heart in this familiar re-telling. The temptation for me, I know, is to gloss over the details of the story and focus only on the fact that I’ve heard this before and it has spoken to me from the point of view of the Prodigal one year, the older son the next and the father in still another. This year, I forced myself to listen to what others picked up in their hearing – and it allows me to find anew the message that God’s seeks to convey in the voices of wise elders and insightful youth. I had yet another experience this week that led me to a deeper understanding of reconciliation in my life. It was the opportunity to come to reconciliation with myself; with my own fears and insecurities and to realize that in the voices of others I can find the truths that God seeks to help me discover. In reviewing my time among this community, I am being encouraged to discover strengths that I need to build upon and challenges that I need to overcome in order to guide us to a deeper and more fully alive witness to the Gospel in our corner of God’s Kindom. We have worked and discerned that our very special calling in this place is to be a gathering of healing and welcome to all who seek a deeper relationship with God – not only to those who come into our pews or into our Parish Hall seeking spiritual nourishment or physical nourishment. Perhaps more importantly to those outside of our Red Doors; our neighbors both housed and homeless – the stranger and the friend and invite them to feast in our abundant blessing. It is our calling and our responsibility to extend our sincere welcome that they might be fed by the God who has filled us all with the Good News that we are welcomed home; that those who felt almost as one who was dead have come to life and the ones who were lost have been found.

The incalculable love and generosity of our God – symbolized in this story by the father – is ours not because of anything we have done however good or bad we imagine our selves and our behavior to be; rather it is ours because God created us in God’s image and likeness and we are loved because God is good – all the time. Here’s the best news of the Good News in this Gospel story and it comes early in the narrative: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The Community of God is not a temple for saints; it is rather a respite for sinners. Our Messiah the very God incarnate in Jesus the Christ chooses to eat sinners and welcome them to his table. We are called to do the same, to be the good news for those who think that they will always be alone and without a community that cares for them. To those who hunger for healing and hope; to those who thirst for refreshment and reconciliation we say “come to the table and eat, with and of the God who has reconciled all things in Christ.” I ask your help in spreading this good news. We need each and every one of us here this morning and even more we need each and everyone those who are not – to offer them the healing comfort of our community and assure them that they are welcomed by the God who welcomes sinners and eats with them! Now that’s good news; that’s Gospel my friends and that is worth all the effort it will take to build anew the Kindom of God in this place.

Amen.

Third Sunday in Lent - Year C 2010

Third Sunday in Lent – Year C (RCL) 2010
Isaiah 55: 1 – 9; Psalm 63: 1 – 8; 1 Corinthians 10: 1 – 13; Luke 13: 1 – 9
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, March 7, 2010

WE ARE ALL SINNERS IN YOUR SIGHT

Let us pray: We come before you this day O God seeking your forgiveness in light of our sinfulness. In this Lenten journey we look to find mercy in your judgment – we seek to repent and return to your way. Keep us mindful of your call to consider our failings in your sight that we might be filled with the knowledge of your desire for mercy and not sacrifice; for you are generous o Lover of souls and we are blessed by your mercy. Help us to examine all of our sins and repent of them that we might be reunited in your Easter joy. Amen.

(SUNG) THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND

FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY

THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND

FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY.

Today’s passage from second Isaiah is an invitation to abundant life extended to all Israel in preparation for the divine salvation soon to be realized. The prophet calls God’s people to return from their exile and to “incline your ear, and come to me, listen so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” Here the prophet recalls for God’s people one of the four major covenantal relationships which Yahweh has offered; the first being the one with Noah, the second with Abraham and the third with Moses. It is this fourth Davidic covenant that will yoke the new covenant with the Christ to the ancient ones of God’s chosen people. It is in this call to a renewed relationship with God that promises of repentance and return to the Lord are first offered to us. “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts, let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Israel’s deliverance by the hand of Yahweh, however, seems to be contingent on the one thing of which she was unable to do in those days just prior to her exile – to turn to God with all of their hearts and to repent of their sinfulness. Only then would God be able to pardon and show them mercy. Now is that time, declares the prophet. A door is open and God is near and inviting the Israelites to return. God will allow himself to be found; and is drawing near to restore Israel. Now is the time to return to God and expect restoration.

Israel did, as we do today, struggle with her understanding of a God who might restore them after all of their failings at faithfulness in the past. The prophet, however, insists that God does not decide on such things in the same way that human beings do. God’s ways are higher than human ways. At the heart of Israel’s theology is a struggle between belief in God as a judge who rules by divine law, and belief in God as creature of compassion and mercy, who routinely violates the demands of divine justice in order to have mercy on a wayward humanity. It’s not logical for a God of justice to waive the judgment which humans so richly deserve. No human judge would set aside our laws in such a generous fashion. However, God is God and can do as God pleases. God does not desire or need our understanding of divine judgment and mercy in order to act as She chooses.

(SUNG) THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND
FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY
THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND
FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY.

As we move deeper into our Lenten reflections our readings from the Author of Luke/Acts account of the Gospel narrative become more and more focused on repentance and renewal of our relationship to God through Christ. This is the case in the text which we read today from the 13th Chapter of that Gospel – where we encounter Jesus’ exchange with a group of people who recount a tragic incident of some Galileans who were massacred at the hands of Pontius Pilate in the holy place of the Temple. Picture if you will, law officers entering our sanctuary space at the insistence of our Governor, and spilling the blood of our members as it mingles with the blood of Christ poured out from our Chalice. That situation would, in some small way, reflect the horror of an occupied people who were at the mercy of a bloodthirsty barbarian who ruled their lives. We are not told who these people who recount this story to Jesus are – are they adversaries who wish to entrap or just simple folk who look to have answers about why bad things happen to good people? Jesus does not address this universal characteristic of humanity –i.e. our need to know how a just God can allow these tragedies to happen. Rather, we are told – Jesus asks if they believe that these Galileans suffered in this way because they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, Jesus assures them – they were not any worse, and unless all repent all will perish, as did those in this tragic circumstance. This is a tough message for them – and for us to hear! We want answers to our conundrum about a God who allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, and we get a scolding about our behavior and a warning to shape up! Then, lest we think it was Pilate’s evil intention which is being judged here, Jesus recounts the story of a seemingly random act of tragedy which occurred when the tower at the gate of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people – do they think that those eighteen were any worse offenders than all the others who were living in Jerusalem? Well, we get the point, don’t we? All of us are sinners in God’s sight – none of us gets to judge who is the worst sinner – since God expects repentance and return from all of us we are hardly able to judge each other, but oh how we love to!

The truth is this return and repent message doesn’t preach well to people who wish to question God’s seemingly random mercy, judgment and justice. It becomes much easier for us to demand answers as to why babies die of cancer and corporate profit stealing moguls live to ripe old age. That, you see, allows us to deflect the contemplation of our own sinfulness and how we will be called to account for that when we meet God face to face. How could we bear to do that if a God who allows the rain to fall both on the just and the unjust did not love us? How will we be able to feast at the heavenly banquet beside Mother Teresa and the perpetrators of the horrible death and destruction at the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001?


(SUNG) THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND
FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY
THIS IS HOLY GROUND, WE'RE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND
FOR OUR GOD IS PRESENT, AND WHERE GOD IS IS HOLY.

God is faithful, even when we are not. This is the message that is delivered again and again to God’s people throughout the history of our relationship with the divine. Again and again God’s calls us back to renew the convent – again and again God’s sends prophets and poets to warn us of the ways in which we fail each other and so the ways in which we fail our God. Our very God in the person of Jesus the Christ came to live among us and give us the benefit of the ultimate sacrifice offered on behalf of our sins and we fail even to acknowledge that ultimate gift when we fail to love that Christ in each other. Yet God offers again to take us back – to renew our covenant if we but only repent of the sins we have committed and return to the ways of righteousness and peace. In the parable story of the fig tree which fails to bear fruit, the owner returns not once, not twice but even a third year in anticipation of the expected harvest. At that last attempt he strikes out in anger and tells the gardener to cut the offending tree down, after all its only wasting the valuable resources of soil and water. One more time, one more year – says the gardener – let me work on it, toil with it and fertilize it and see if next year it will bear fruit; if not you can cut it down. We are not told in this parable example if the gardener was finally successful and the next year bore fruit for the owner of the vineyard – yet that is not the purpose of this lesson which Jesus coveys to them and to us. The lesson to be gained is in the patience and passion of the gardener who will dig around the roots, feed and nourish with manure and wait for growth and fruit to blossom from tender care and concern. Then, if all is as God’s intends it to be the tree will yield a healthy and fruitful harvest.

When we take the opportunity to examine our hearts, our lives and our consciences, and reflect on the ways we have sinned against each other and so sinned against God – we can ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness which we do not deserve, nor have we ever done enough to earn. Then, clear in our minds that our sin is through our own fault – but what we have done and by what we have left undone – we can seek forgiveness by grace, repent of our faults and return to the heart of our God who loves us beyond reason or understanding. If we resolve to spend time in reflection, repentance and returning in this Lenten season, we will experience the joy of an Easter moment filled with redemption, renewal and rebirth – and rejoicing will be great in heaven for this sinner who was lost and has been found and by the grace of God forgiven and reclaimed.

Amen.

Ash Wednesday 2010

Ash Wednesday – Year C (RCL) 2010
Isaiah 58: 1 – 12; Psalm 51: 1 – 17; 2 Cor 5: 20b – 6:10; Matthew 6: 1 – 6; 16 – 21
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

FROM OUR SINS WE HAVE BEEN FREED

Let us pray: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us. As we approach this season of reflection and repentance, we ask your mercy and grace to guide our hearts and our minds toward a holy time of reconciliation and renewal. It is in the promise of your Holy One, Jesus the Christ, that we find the strength as people of corruption to approach your throne of Glory and reconcile our world to you. Teach us, Oh patient God to always return and repent of the tendency to stray from your love. We ask all this in the name of the One who is our sacrifice and our savior – Jesus the Christ. Amen.

(SUNG) COME BACK TO ME, WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
DON’T LET FEAR, KEEP US APART. TREES DO BEND
THOUGH STRAIGHT AND TALL, SO DO WE, EACH OTHER
CALL.
LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR YOUR COMING HOME TO ME,
AND LIVING DEEPLY OUR NEW LIFE.

I’ve been working pretty hard today. This is the last of four services that I have led for Ash Wednesday. I’ve been thinking a lot as a result of that work and those services about the prevalence of sin in our lives and in our corporate liturgy the opportunity we are given each week when we gather as God’s people around God’s holy table to acknowledge our sin and confess it before God and each other; and receive the assurance by God’s words through the priest that we have been absolved of and forgiven for all of our sins. “Confession is good for the soul” seems to speak more and more truthfully to me as I get older. And so today is one of many days in my life over the past eight years that I discover anew a fact of church life that still continues to baffle me – people still yearn to acknowledge before God and each other their brokenness in sin and their repentance and hope for reconciliation in order to return to right relationship before God.

What is it about this need to root out our sinfulness and seek forgiveness from God which overcomes us when we gather in God’s house to offer worship and praise for the manifold gifts and blessings we have received from the God who loves us always and seeks us constantly? Our deepest Christian beliefs assure us that we are indeed, forgiven for all that we might have done to break our relationship with God and God’s covenant with us. In the language of the Eucharistic prayer from the Rite One service referring to our redemption through Christ we pray: “He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world.” Still, individually and corporately, we find the desire and in reality the need to humbly confess our sins before God and our neighbor.

Perhaps nothing in our Holy Scriptures describes this confession and repentance better than does the psalmist in what our tradition numbers as Psalm 51. The superscription from that Psalm is translated: “A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”. Yet, the text of the psalm lacks any specific reference to the David/Bathsheba story; and in fact it is the very universality of the psalm’s language about sin that has allowed it to speak to the widest possible variety of human sinful experiences. This psalm has become the classic statement of repentance – and so deeply has it shaped the language of confession in both the Hebrew and Christian communities that its very cadences often echo in synagogues and in churches when worshipers address in a corporate fashion our sinfulness before God. It is a verse from this psalm which I pray when I ritually wash my hands in ablutions before the Eucharistic Prayer that I offer on behalf of all of God’s people; v. 11 “Create in mi a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” This psalm is no less a powerful vehicle for expressing individual confession and its inclusion as an Ash Wednesday lection is mandatory by all of the church’s lectionaries – and especially for those of us who worship in the liturgical and confessional traditions. Ash Wednesday then becomes for us the equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Day of Atonement’ when God’s people turn in private and corporate prayer to address our sins and our failings before the God who loves us.

(SUNG) THE WILDERNESS WILL LEAD YOU TO YOUR HEART
WHERE I WILL SPEAK.
INTEGRITY AND JUSTICE, WITH TENDERNESS, YOU SHALL
KNOW.
LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR YOUR COMING HOME TO ME AND
LIVING DEEPLY OUR NEW LIFE.

Paul, in the second letter to the early Christian community at Corinth addresses the issue of sin and reconciliation. Our reading today comes from the 5th and 6th Chapters of that letter – and rather than a direct cry to God for forgiveness and reconciliation the apostle asserts that it is God rather who reaches out to humanity seeking reconciliation and a return to rightness in relationship. The point which is made in this portion of the letter is that it is not God who must be appeased because of human action; but rather human beings, who have turned away from God in rebellion and who must, therefore, accept God’s appeal and be reconciled. Even in the face of the reality of human sin, it is God who takes the initiative to correct the situation – human beings have only to receive God’s appeal. Paul addresses this universal need for redemption and reconciliation and appoints a specificity to the events in the newly formed community at Corinth – it is time, Paul offers – or perhaps past time for the church to lay aside their differences and hear in full the reconciling plea of God made through those whom God appointed as their leaders; valuable lessons even for us who read portions of the letter some two thousand years hence!

I cannot imagine that there is anyone here this evening who is not aware of the reality that we are all sinners in God’s sight. If there are any who doubt this reality please see me after the service and we can address your confusion. The common human experience of the fallen and broken nature of our relationship with God – leads us to this time of reflection and introspection in which we can examine our own sinfulness and repent and return to our God who is constantly seeking reconciliation and renewal with each and every one of us. The Church invites us to this period of forty days in which we can seek a renewal and reconciliation in our fractured relationships with God and with each other. The disciplines which we “take on” in this holy season allow us to point our hearts and our lives toward the places we seldom seek to go – those places where we find our selfish and stubborn natures returning time and again – even when we don’t want to. As we examine our sins and look to accept the reconciliation, which God offers in Christ – we can only do so after reflecting on those dark and dreadful places of our fear and fallen lives. The Christ looks to shine the light of truth and wholeness and healing into those broken places of our lives. When we know where and what those places are; God can begin to reconcile them and us back into spiritual health and wholeness that we seek.

We recognize today the cathartic effect of acknowledging and admitting the brokenness of our relationship with God and our responsibility to each other and ourselves in confessing our sins and examining our lives in light of those failings. In these next weeks of our Lenten journey we can gain much by spending time in prayer and meditation seeking the reconciliation that God offers, and we so often fail to accept. Confession may be good for the soul – and it is also good for the psyche. May we discover in these next forty days that the weaknesses which are part of our sinful nature can be conquered with the help of God and that the disciplines which we take on to offset those weaknesses can blossom into the fullness of new life in Christ.

(SUNG) YOU SHALL SLEEP SECURE WITH PEACE; FAITHFULNESS WILL BE YOUR JOY. LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR YOUR COMING HOME TO ME
AND LIVING DEEPLY OUR NEW LIFE.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - Year C 2010

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – Year C (RCL) 2010
Jeremiah 1: 4 – 10; Psalm 71: 1 – 6; 1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 13; Luke 4: 21 – 30
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, January 31, 2010

PROPHETS AND PREACHERS

Let us Pray: Holy God you speak to us, your people, in many and varied ways. We hear your voice in scripture and song – in still and quiet contemplation and in the thunderous majesty of your work in nature. Often we wish to hear only the comfort and peace your message brings, while ignoring the warnings and judgments of the consequences of our sinful actions. Help us to remember that you came among us as the prince of peace proclaiming forgiveness and as the prophet of fire proclaiming repentance. Help us to live in your Grace and in your prophetic warnings learning to balance between the two, so that we might more fully comprehend your Word in our world. Amen.

(SUNG) SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING
PLANT YOUR WORD DOWN DEEP IN ME.
SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING,
PLEASE SHOW ME THE WAY.

I can see my homiletics professor uneasily squirming in the chair at the back of the classroom and furiously scribbling away on the notepad and “Student Preacher Evaluation Form” on the desk in front of him. Comments and feedback were always to be given in a positive and supportive format – yet he was not likely to mince words when it came to shaping the style of budding seminarians who were soon to be set loose into the pulpits of America and beyond. We were encouraged to cultivate our own gifts and talents and bring them with us into our preaching – and we were also challenged when doing so to make sure that we understood the most effective way of communicating the message to the widest possible number of listeners. The primary mistake made by most new preachers – according to Dr. Webb – was to underestimate the audience either by preaching well above their heads or well beneath their capacity to incorporate new ways of visioning familiar stories and helping to shape a response to the challenge of the Gospel message. “Mr. Parker, where’s the good news?” This phrase continues to challenge and stretch me each week as I prepare through prayer and reading – through meditation and musing to explore what God might be saying to us as followers of the Christ.

Now I’m not sure who would have ventured to provide a critique of the sermon delivered at the Synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath, which had the appointed reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the 61st Chapter. Joseph and Mary’s eldest son – who had been away from town and reportedly teaching and preaching throughout Galilee, had returned and all were set to be wowed in this hometown crowd. Opening with a flare for the gifts of understated subtlety – Jeshua bar Joseph – reads the text, rolls back up the scroll of Isaiah, hands it back to the scribe, sits down in the midst of them; waits for all eyes and ears to be focused and attentive – and says “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Muttering in the crowd, “so far so good….this could be interesting….where do you think he’s going with this? Then every homiletic teacher’s nightmare erupts. The preacher overreaches the boundaries of good rhetorical style and proceeds to make assumptions on behalf of the audience – assumptions that may or may not be true and – the crowd starts to grumble and grow restless, irritable and discontent. The preacher then starts to get defensive, “I know what your thinking…Doctor heal yourself…”, and “why don’t you do for us the fantastic things we’ve been hearing about your doing for everybody else in the area”. The whole situation starts to spiral out of control – the preacher grumbles; “nobody ever gets any recognition in their hometown” and starts to quote stories out of their sacred scriptures of how the majesty and grace of God are going to everybody else in the world before they will be given to this ungrateful people. This preacher is not going to earn anything much better than a C- if not an F; and the feedback will address many of the pitfalls of trying to make connection with an audience for which one might have little to no respect – and hoping to change their hearts and minds by telling them that if they don’t shape up the good news is going to somebody else, and they can just suffer the consequences! Not the best way to win friends and influence people.


(SUNG) SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING
PLANT YOUR WORD DOWN DEEP IN ME.
SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING,
PLEASE SHOW ME THE WAY.

The reality is that, in fact, Prophets and Messiah’s don’t necessarily need to conform to homiletical conventions and rarely look to address their remarks in ways that might be suggested by the Dale Carnegie method of how best to win friends and influence people. From the reading of the Hebrew Testament assigned today we hear the story of the call of the Prophet Jeremiah. This “call story” follows pretty much the pattern of the other narrative telling of God’s call to the prophetic voices in the history of our relationship with the Divine. God announces intention that this individual will go forth and speak to the people providing challenge and charge – extending judgment and justice, recalling the wayward and welcoming the disenfranchised to participation in the covenantal relationship. The chosen individual voices objection of ignorance or unworthiness. God then assures that words will be given and strength will be provided to those whom God calls. Having struggled protested and sufficiently whined – then having been assured – the individual is symbolically marked as God’s chosen, and goes on to live out their lives as God’s mouthpiece. Is it any wonder that all of these prophetic voices would have preferred a different lot in life? Consider Jeremiah – verses one through three of the first chapter of this book tell us that God extended call to this young man in the thirteenth year of King Josiah’s reign making it the year 627 BCE. This was a momentous and tumultuous time in the history of God’s chosen people in the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen into the hands of conquering nations about a century previously and things were about to go pretty much downhill for the remaining remnant. In Jeremiah’s lifetime (some 60 to 75 years as can best be determined) the Assyrian empire, which had long dominated the known world, was crumbling. The pulse of the Hebrew people was rapid with fear of the change coming and with a perhaps naïve hope of some sort of political alliance which might allow national freedom in the approaching power of Babylon. It would be Jeremiah’s fate to speak to God’s chosen people of the impending destruction from the north while attempting to encourage them toward a return to the Torah principles, which had governed their lives. Some of this rededication to the rule of God by God’s law began to happen under the leadership of King Josiah, and there was a brief period when the Vassal nation was able to break free of the crumbling Assyrian empire and exert its own national identity. This, however, was not long lived, and when Josiah died in 609, the kingdom of Judah continued its decline and eventually fell into the hands of the ascending world power of the Babylon nation. Jeremiah was able to foresee most of these conditions while preaching and prophesying to a people who were not particularly thrilled with his gloom and doom news. Yet this voice of God for the people of God continued to live out the call “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The prophet for a new and renewed covenant with God’s people – manifest in the epiphany appearance of that very Godhead dwelling among us – would also have words to speak, messages to preach and prophesies to declare which would fall upon many times indifferent – and probably more times openly hostile ears. The riled and angry crowd in Nazareth might have been the first – and definitely would not be the last, which would look to silence this hometown rabble-rouser with attempts at violently ending a life. Jesus, like the prophets before, knew clearly what a limited time was available to turn the hearts and minds of a rebellious nation back toward righteousness and salvation. Three years of public ministry – teaching and guiding, preparing and cajoling the followers would end in the facing down of another violent crowd who would reject the difficult message and ultimately succeed in the ending of a life. Any wonder why prophets might be reluctant to answer their call? This prophet, however, would be different. The attempt at silencing this prophet by death would fail because this prophet would have power over death itself.

(SUNG) SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING
PLANT YOUR WORD DOWN DEEP IN ME.
SPEAK LORD I’M LISTENING,
PLEASE SHOW ME THE WAY.

In the midst of these two difficult stories about the words and work of prophets and preachers the compilers of our lectionary have included the hymn to love written by Paul to the early Christian community at Corinth. I observed many of your faces this morning as you listened to these familiar words, which gloriously tell of the power of Love. It was almost as if the lectionary compilers knew that the words of God to Jeremiah and the Word of God in the author of Luke/Acts account needed to be counterbalanced with the love of God which is evident in all of scripture and often hard to discern in those stories and retellings of the prophets and preachers. That, “Mr. Parker” is the ultimate good news. Love conquers everything, love triumphs even over death and destruction. Much might be asked and expected of us as Children of God and heirs of God’s Kindom – and that is because much is given in Love. And Love never ends.

Amen.

Second Sunday After Epiphany - Year C 2010

Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Year C (RCL) 2010
Isaiah 62: 1 – 5; Psalm 36: 5 – 10; 1 Corinthians 12: 1 – 11; John 2: 1 – 11
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, January 17, 2010

OF WINE AND WITNESS

Let us pray: God of abundant grace we are overwhelmed by the excess of your generosity and blessing. As you demonstrated at the wedding feast in Cana, your heart knows no boundary in displaying your care and concern for your children. Like empty stone jars, you have filled us with your goodness and grace. Now pour us out into a world that sorely needs your love and presence. Let your love flow to those who thirst for acceptance and new beginnings. As we remember this day the ministry of all those who follow in your name – we are especially grateful for the witness of your servant Martin. May our hearts and lives be enlightened by the memories of those saints who have come before us, and challenged by the call of the prophetic voices for peace in our midst. May we utilize the gifts of the Spirit to further the work of your kindom among us. Amen.

(SUNG) TASTE AND SEE, TASTE AND SEE
THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD.
OH, TASTE AND SEE – TASTE AND SEE
THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD. OF THE LORD.

I am struck by the imagery and description of interactions with Jesus, the disciples and crowds whenever we find the Gospel narratives turn toward stories of food and table fellowship. This morning’s depiction in the Gospel account by the author of John’s Gospel is no less telling in terms of this fellowship and Jesus’ response. This story appears only in the author of John’s telling of the good news. It seems an odd and perhaps trivial way for Jesus to begin public ministry – yet on closer exploration it speaks of God’s generosity and abundance poured out for us so that we might pour ourselves out for others in God’s name. It is perhaps helpful to look at this story narrative in light of its placement within the structure of this author’s text. This is the first of seven “signs” to which the author points as demonstrations of the power of this Emanuel, this “God with us” to move people from doubt to belief. “Signs” as this author describes them, are perhaps different from what we might think of as “miracles”. I often think of a “miracle” as some act or intervention into the natural physical laws of our world – which temporarily “suspends” those laws in order for the miraculous event to occur. A “sign” rather is an indicator of something toward which it points. For example, if you are driving down a roadway and suddenly see a blue light flashing in your rear view mirror, you might think “that is a police car coming up behind me.” Well, in actuality the blue light is not a policeman – rather it is a “sign” which points toward the police vehicle and the officer inside of it rushing closer toward your vehicle. In the same way, the author of this Gospel sees seven “signs” of Jesus’ ministry as pointing toward the greater glory represented in them. Signs, however unlike miracles done in the open – are hidden from some. Not everyone understands their significance – and often many miss the subtleties of their pointing. The narrator tells us, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciple believed in him.”
Cana, as well as this story of Jesus’ attendance at the wedding feast there – are unique to the Gospel according to John. Scholars are puzzled as to where the exact location of “Cana” would be; it is mentioned in no other texts of the time. Suggestions are that is might be the community presently located at Kefr Kenna, which is about 4 and a half miles northeast of Nazareth. This author mentions the community other times, mentioning that Jesus is visiting there when asked to heal the son of the Roman official at Capernaum and identifying it as the disciple Bartholomew’s home town. The significance then of Cana, is its insignificance. Just another example that this author uses to point out that God, in Christ takes the ordinariness of our life sanctifies it and by so doing makes it holy and sacred.

(SUNG) TASTE AND SEE, TASTE AND SEE
THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD.
OH, TASTE AND SEE – TASTE AND SEE
THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD. OF THE LORD.

Let’s return to the idea of Jesus’ interaction with the disciples and the crowds at times of food sharing or table fellowship. Vision if you will the abundance when Jesus surrounds himself at events of feasting and nourishment for the body – they also frequently become opportunities for nourishment of the spirit. In Jewish tradition, we should note images of banquet were associated with the messianic age. The author of John’s Gospel is well aware of this and uses the “first” of the signs which point toward Jesus as something more than meets the eye to highlight the messianic fulfillment in the “Word made flesh” who will perform other signs in the time of first century Palestine which will speak some two thousand years later with much the same power and intention. Six stone water jars filled to capacity become wine of our rarest vintage (Chateau Mouton Rothschild). Five barley loaves and two fish feed 5000 – bread and wine offered at the Passover feast become food for that generation and for this as the very sustenance of body and spirit. All of this speaks of the abundance and extravagant generosity of God, made manifest in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. We should note that weddings in the time of Jesus were more than the merely private family affairs of our time. Weddings often lasted for seven full days and the entire community would be gathered for vast amounts of food and wine. The regular and meager diet of the peasant classes of that time would have consisted mostly of grain, vegetables, fruit, olives and occasionally fish. Meat and poultry were rarely eaten since people were reluctant to eat the few animals they had. Hence, the wedding banquet took on a special and spectacular place in the lives of the people of Jesus’ time and station. There is a reason that heaven is depicted in the lives and literature of these people as a great banquet at which no one goes hungry and room is made at the table for all. This is the scene that the author of John’s Gospel wishes to describe and implant in the hearts and minds of the audience as the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The “six stone jars” which Jesus asks to be filled with water would have been present for the ritual purification of the guests at this banquet. Each of these jars would have held twenty to thirty gallons of liquid. Ritual tradition would have required approximately 1 cup of water for each persons purification ritual; it is possible that 120 to 180 gallons would have been enough for purification of the whole known world – and now the guests at this wedding banquet into the third day of the celebration have enough wine to satisfy the needs of all of Israel twice or three time over. Such is the abundant grace and blessing of the Messiah. As we begin to examine the life and ministry of the Word made flesh, John’s author seems to be saying that what this Jesus is about – what this gospel or “good news” of Jesus is about is a wedding banquet at which the wine never runs out and the best is saved for last.

(SUNG) LET US TURN OUR THOUGHTS TODAY
TO MARTIN LUTHER KING – AND RECOGNIZE THAT THEIR
ARE TIES BETWEEN US, ALL MEN AND WOMEN. TIES OF
HOPE AND LOVE, SISTER AND BROTHERHOOD. THAT WE ARE
BOUND TOGETHER, IN OUR DESIRE TO SEE THE WORLD
BECOME A PLACE IN WHICH OUR CHILDREN CAN GROW FREE
AND STRONG. WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER BY THE TASK THAT
STANDS BEFORE US AND THE ROAD THAT LIES AHEAD.
WE ARE BOUND, AND WE ARE BOUND.

Some of you may recognize that ballad which first appeared on a James Taylor Album in 1995 and provides the perfect “segue” to move from the preaching of a sermon on the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth to the living of a sermon on the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth that was embodied in the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This spiritual and civil rights leader is remembered for the incredible gift that he was to our generation and countless generations to come by the setting aside of a special holiday in memoriam. I think that we as Christian community do a grave disservice to Dr. King’s memory and to the Gospel message if we allow this day to pass without some recognition I am grateful to our Director of Music Ministry for choosing hymns for this Sunday which reflect the gifts of African American composers in our traditions of sacred music and hymnody. Dr. King and the message, which he tirelessly preached, must serve to continue to stir the hearts and minds of this nation and this Church that still suffers from the sin of Racism. Many among us have living memory of the work, which Dr. King led in the heart of the American south during that turbulent period of the early 1960’s; while others were not even born until well after his tragic death by assassination in 1968. History leaves us a large collection of letters, writings and sermons from the hand of this charismatic and gifted leader of the Church. I would like to share with you just a few of the quotes that continue to stir my heart and soul with the power of his prophetic ministry:

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word”. “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“Any religion which professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.”

I would challenge each of us to take the time this week to read to re-read “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. It is easily accessible in many formats and speaks to the Church and to the world with dignity and passion about the work, which God called Dr. King to live out, and subsequently calls each of us to live out in our own ways. Grace and abundant blessing is still spoken to us in our own day and time, by voices like those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and by voices like yours. This is the way that the message of Good News or Gospel continues to live in “the word made flesh” who continues to dwell among us.

The Eve of Christmas – Year C (RCL) 2009
Isaiah 9: 2 – 7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11 – 14; Luke 2: 1 – 14
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Thursday, December 24, 2009

BORN AMONG US – BORN WITHIN US

Let us pray: Silently and softly you are birthed among us on this most holy night. Emperors and Kings have ruled and died and yet your reign goes on toward eternity. Born to us this night as our savior and messiah, we are filled with the hope and promise of life renewed and peace proclaimed. In this ancient story we regain a sense of your miracle incarnate in the Holy One of Israel, the illegitimate son of a Jewish peasant girl; the anointed one of David’s line by way of a simple carpenter from Nazareth; Jesus our Christ. Fill us this night with the means of grace and the hope of Glory heralded by Angels and witnessed by peasants so long ago and only yesterday. Amen.

(SUNG) TREE CHRISTMAS O – TREE CHRISTMAS O
BRANCHES THY ARE LOVELY HOW
HERE SUMMER’S THE WHEN ONLY NOT
YEAR OF TIME COLDEST THE IN BUT
TREE CHRISTMAS O – TREE CHRISTMAS O
BRANCHES THY ARE LOVELY HOW

One of the most enduring signs of our connection to the festival we celebrate this night is the borrowed Germanic pagan tradition of bringing the evergreen tree into our homes, businesses and churches and decorating them with light and ornamentation. Some of us will scurry home tonight and prop up that tree in its stand, unravel strands of light with which to adorn its branches then carefully and meticulously place Popsicle stick kindergarten art projects or delicate crystal treasures gingerly dangling from the scented pine of its boughs. Others who might be of a more organized personality type have perhaps performed this ritual weeks ago influenced by the timing of our late November festival of Thanksgiving – but in either case this ritual is an important piece of our “tradition” around the celebration of Christmas. You might be surprised as I was to learn that the latest trend in Christmas tree chic turns the whole concept upside down. Indeed, all the rage among a small but growing number of devotee’s is hanging the Christmas tree upside down, suspended from the ceiling. Peter Applebaum, a freelance writer reported on the growing phenomenon in the November 27th, 2005 edition of the New York Times. In fact, it was the title for that article which stirred my rendition of O Tannenbaum sung in exact reverse order (not an easy feat I assure you). Why, you might ask would someone do such a thing? Aside from just being different for different sake – several advantages are touted for the upside down Christmas tree. First of all, marketer’s point out – it makes room for more and larger presents underneath it for those who are big spenders. If you are an urban dweller living in a small cramped apartment the ceiling mounted tree can take up much less valuable floor space. Then from a more stylistic point of view; you can put your more prized ornaments at eye level where they can be enjoyed and admired by more than toddlers and the household pets whose intention for them might be something other than gazing in admiration! One might be aware of the obvious disadvantages such as where do you put the star, and how on earth do you water a tree which is suspended from the ceiling? Then again, the “traditionalists” might argue, “why would anyone nail a tree to the ceiling, that’s just not Christmas”!

People simply do not like to have their sacred traditions tampered with. If we have ALWAYS sung silent night with candles lit just after communion then that is the way that we will ALWAYS do it. Family traditions especially around this time of year are sacrosanct and the wise new Pastor will be sure to learn what HAS to show up in every Christmas Eve liturgy. Part of the danger; however, of clinging to our traditions as if they were sacred is that we begin to blur the lines between the traditions of the season and the reason for the season. The birth of the King of the World in an animal shed was about turning the world upside down. Angels descend to earth and proclaim tidings of great joy not to Emperor’s and popes; but rather to sheepherders and innkeepers too wrapped up in the busyness of the season to prepare room for the newly arrived messiah. God could have chosen to enter our world in the majesty of the Great Temple at Jerusalem, but chose a birth at Bethlehem a small town about 6 miles south of the big city. The message, which this God incarnate born this night brings, would also be about turning the world upside down. The poor and marginalized would become the disciples and ministers; tax collectors and Samaritan women would be filled with God’s Spirit and hope in the messages of this radical rabbi; this son of an unwed teenager and a carpenter of King David’s line. God would carry out the plan of salvation beginning by taking on our life in the feeding trough and ending it on the wood of the tree; hardly what was expected by the prophets foretelling.

So into the middle of your Christmas Eve liturgy and traditions comes the moment of placing the Christ Child figure into the Crèche (invite someone in the community to do this now) This night as we welcome the newborn Christ child into our hearts by the symbol of our welcome of guests into the midst of our community. When we offer the Peace of God found in this birth that proclaimed Peace on Earth; we continue to live out the Christmas story anew – two thousand and nine years after it occurred in Bethlehem of Judea – and we weep for the walls that separate Palestinian from Jew in that ancient cradle of Christianity. At our Christmas liturgy we light the center candle of white, which symbolizes the “Light of Christ” in which we rejoiced at our Easter Vigil – think of it as the culmination of our Advent Wreath that also helps us to focus our minds and hearts on the return of the light to brighten the darkness of our world with the hope and promise of new birth.

(SUNG) FOR CHRIST IS BORN OF MARY AND GATHERED ALL ABOVE,
WHILE MORTALS SLEEP THE ANGELS KEEP THEIR WATCH OF
WONDERING LOVE. O MORNING STARS TOGETHER PROCLAIM
THE HOLY BIRTH, AND PRAISES SING TO GOD OUR KING AND
PEACE TO ALL ON EARTH.

Hear a story. Preparations were complete and the eve had arrived for the retelling of the Greatest Story Ever Told in Pageant by all of the members of St. Swithen’s by the Sea. The costumes of shepherds and angels were stitched by loving hands and the smallest of the Sunday school members were replete with tinsel covered halos placed above their adorable blonde heads. Everything was in perfect order and ready for the big service. The only questionable moment might come from Barry. Barry was the one who usually managed to botch things up and it had been decided to let him play the Innkeeper. All he would have to do is say two words, “no room”. Even Barry could do that. The time for the Pageant arrived – all of the children gathered at the front doors of the church. Joseph stepped forward and said, “My wife is pregnant, do you have a place where we could stay”? Barry said, “no room”. Joseph persisted, “but we have no place to go. My wife is about to have a baby.” Barry looked at Mary. His chin began to quiver. How could he turn them away? But his line was, “no room”, so he said it one more time – “no room”. With that, Joseph and Mary turned and started to walk away. Barry stood it as long as he could. Then he called after them, “Wait! Don’t Go! You can have my room”. With that I think the most powerful lesson of Christmas was given.

(SUNG) O HOLY CHILD OF BETHLEHEM, DESCEND TO US WE PRAY;
CAST OUT OUR SIN AND ENTER IN, BE BORN IN US TODAY.
WE HEAR THE CHRISTMAS ANGELS THE GREAT GLAD TIDINGS
TELL. O COME TO US ABIDE WITH US GREAT GOD EMANUEL!

Episcopal Priest and powerful preacher Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, Mixed Blessings imagines God addressing humanity with this impassioned plea:

“I am so crazy in love with you that I will come all the way to where you are to be flesh of your flesh; bone of your bone. I love you enough to become Word made flesh and will dwell among you. I will do it all, and all you have to do is believe me – that I love you the way you are; love you enough to become one of you, and I love you to death.”

Third Sunday in Advent - Year C 2009

Third Sunday in Advent – Year C (RCL) 2009
Zephaniah 3: 14 – 20; Isaiah 12: 2 – 6; Philippians 4: 4 – 7; Luke 3: 7 – 18
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, December 13, 2009

THAT MOST UNCOMFORTABLE OF IN-BETWEEN TIMES

Let us pray: Holy and long awaited One – the advent of your presence among us passes all too quickly in our expectation of your birth and the re-telling of your nativity. Help us to remain in that “time between” when we can truly prepare for all that your coming among us means. As we speed more and more surely toward the dying of the light – may your advent help us to reflect upon our brokenness and remind us of your promises made new each dawn. Fill us with the joy of your saving grace on this day of rejoicing at the hope of your coming among us. Amen.

(SUNG) COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS, BORN TO SET THY
PEOPLE FREE – FROM OUR FEARS AND SINS RELEASE US
LET US FIND OUR STRENGTH IN THEE.

Here it is already the Third Sunday in Advent – we will light (have lit) the pink candle in the midst of our Advent wreath. In the tradition of the Church pink (or rose) is the liturgical color designated for Gaudate Sunday. This tradition comes from the first line of the Introit or opening prayer of the Latin church in the West; “Gaudete in Domine Semper,” which is translated “rejoice in the Lord always” and taken from the letter to the Philippians in the text read earlier. In the long penitential season of Advent (which at its beginning in the 4th Century started on November 12th – this mid-season prayer placed some joy back into the calendar and allowed for the use of Alleluia’s and hymns of joy and the rose color replaced the more somber purple of the remainder of the Advent season. Probably more than you wanted to know, but then again better than leading off with the fact that there are only 12 more shopping days left till Christmas.

We hear first this morning from the Hebrew prophet Zephaniah. This is not a Hebrew text that we read from very often in our Sunday lectionary. On this Sunday, however, this rejoicing Sunday, this prophet of old offers an incredible and beautiful glimpse of real, biblical style God given joy. Zephaniah speaks of a day when God no longer has to deal harshly with the faithful; he speaks of a day when the judgment for pursuing false joys is no longer held against those who have been made right with God through the grace of God. There will be a day, there will be a time, Zephaniah says, when women and men will ‘sing aloud’ and ‘shout,’ where they will ‘be glad and rejoice with all their hearts’. This true, authentic joy will well up not as a result of piling up enough money, or achieving certain levels of success. Rather, this lasting joy will flow from the fact that God has found God’s joy in you! That’s correct in little old, sinful imperfect you and me.

We are in that most uncomfortable of “in-between” times. That time of almost…but not yet; of expectation not completion. We have yet to reach the major tones of Christmas carols; we are still in the minor keys of advent hymns. Into the midst of this Advent season comes our encounter this morning with the wilderness prophet, the Son of Zechariah – John of baptizing fame. We are told in the narrative from the author of Luke/Acts that the crowds were thronging out to the wilderness to hear the fiery preacher that referred to them as a brood of vipers. Can you just imagine your surprise if I rose this morning, reeking of days and nights spent in the wild, clothed in animal skins and shouted out that you all were a bunch of snakes and warned you that the ax is lying at the foot of your tree and if it does not bear good fruit it will be chopped down and thrown into the fire? I’m not thinking I’d be offered the position of Rector in this fine and upstanding Episcopal Church in the Downtown Park blocks. Yet, in the passion of this wild man who speaks of the coming wrath of God, is also the promise of the One who is to deliver Israel from her bondage and the Messiah anticipated since the time of the great prophets of old. Those who have come out into the wilderness to hear the message of repentance and rebuke; listen with the ears of those hungry to hear the Good News or Gospel of Joy that we proclaim on this Gaudate Sunday.

(SUNG) ISRAEL’S STRENGTH AND CONSOLATION, HOPE OF ALL THE
EARTH THOU ART; DEAR DESIRE OF EVERY NATION, JOY OF
EVERY LONGING HEART.

It is helpful, I think, to put Zechariah’s son into the context of his time and age. John the baptizer was a sharp thorn in the side of the ruling classes of 1st Century Palestine. This wild man was speaking truth to power – and that is always a very dangerous thing to do. Power doesn’t often like to hear the truth; persons in positions of power generally surround themselves with voices that will assure them of the rightness of their policies and flatter them with encouraging words and pleasant platitudes. This was definitely not the style of the wilderness prophet whose sermon we hear this morning. Stirred by John’s visions of the coming wrath of God; those who sought his baptism and looked to follow his message of repentance ask specific questions of how they ought to repent in order to avoid the coming judgment. “What then should we do”? Now I’m quite sure that no one has ever asked me point blank what they should do in response to one of my sermons. The author of Luke/Acts tells us that the worst of the society asked in what ways they might repent – the baptizer tells them; who ever has two coats must share with anyone who has none”. I looked in my coat closet this morning before leaving the house and it would appear that I have a lot of coats that I need to share. Even the tax collectors we are told came to be baptized by John and they asked “what should we do”. The preacher tells them to exact from the people no more than is prescribed them to collect. That profession was infamous in its greediness and despised in that society for their often brutal tactics to collect what was owed to the Roman Government and then whatever they could gain for themselves. Are we hearing a theme here? Is the writer trying to point out; in a subtle way that what is being demanded of the Jewish Nation by its Roman occupiers is subject to the same fate as the chaff that will burn with unquenchable fire?

(SUNG) BORN THY PEOPLE TO DELIVER, BORN A CHILD AND YET
A KING; BORN TO REIGN IN US FOREVER, NOW THY GRACIOUS
KINDOM BRING.

Here is part of the reality of the Word made flesh – God incarnate – come to dwell among human beings is a God that comes into a world of political power and influence and that world does not give up its gained power easily. What would this Messiah, this hope of the nations do for an oppressed Nation that looked to regain its position and influence? Would the Messiah who would reclaim the throne of his ancestor David – who would in fact come of the same blood line as that greatest of Israel’s Kings – stand in opposition to the dominating and hated power of Rome? The baptizer seems to believe that will be one of his successor’s roles. It is this Messiah that John speaks of when he says “his winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Scripture scholars have long translated Israel as the wheat and her captors as the chaff. It would appear that Zechariah’s son is setting the stage for a Messiah who will fulfill the vision of a political hero that will deliver God’s chosen from the yoke of her oppression.

What transpires, we with the gift of hindsight are aware; is a very different Messiah, than the one that Israel had long expected. The Carpenter’s son, Jeshua of Nazareth; cousin of the wilderness prophet will fulfill the role of Messiah in a very different way….but that story will come later; much later in our re-telling of the salvation story. For today, this rejoicing Gaudate Sunday – the messenger gathers the faithful in the wilderness of Judea and the Word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. In a literal translation from the Greek “the word of God” (whom the writer of another version of the Good News identifies as God by writing …”and the word was God”…) happened to John. The word of God – the long-awaited, eagerly-listened-for word of God happened to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. That very word, became flesh and in the divinity of the Christ delivered the world into the hands of God’s salvation; now if that is not a reason to rejoice in the Lord always…then I don’t what is.

(SUNG) BY THINE OWN ETERNAL SPIRIT RULE IN ALL OUR HEARTS
ALONE; BY THINE OWN SUFFICIENT MERIT RAISE US TO THY
GLORIOUS THRONE.

Finally in this third chapter of the author of Luke/Acts account we are told: “So with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” This fire and brimstone preacher continues his exhortations and by so doing delivers the Gospel to the faithful of his generation. Our reading this morning ends at verse 18 – the completion of that train of thought about John’s wilderness sermon actually extends two more verses in this Chapter. Before we move to the events of Jesus’ baptism and the start of his public ministry – which we will pick up after we revisit the Birth narrative in our season of Christmastide – the author of Luke/Acts ends his talk of John’s wilderness sermon with a brief reference to Herod Antipas who finally imprisoned and cut off the head of John, son of Zechariah. Allow me to share those two verses with you: “But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, added to them all but shutting up John in prison.” But we ought to pity poor King Herod. He’s not as important or as powerful as he thinks. Herod can’t shut John up. The word of God has come to John in the wilderness. A wild conflagration has flared up out in the wilderness, among the marginalized and the lowly, a fire that shall eventually sweep toward Jerusalem and consume the whole world. The word has happened to John – the word has happened to us; rejoice in the word always, again I say Gaudate!

Last Sunday After Pentecost - Year B 2009

Last Sunday afer Pentecost (Christ the King) – Year B (RCL)
Daniel 7: 9 – 10, 13 – 14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1: 4b – 8; John 18: 33 – 37
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, November 22, 2009

ALL THE KING’S HORSES, AND ALL THE KING’S MEN (PEOPLE)

Let us pray: All powerful and mighty God we strive to know you in our own human and secular visions. Throughout our history we have ascribed to you the images and metaphors of our own times and ages. Yet you remain timeless and ageless. You reign in our hearts and in our heads as the source of all our being and the servant of all our needs. In these conflicting images of your presence, teach us to grasp you and not to mold you according to our feeble attempts. Keep us ever mindful of your many and varied names and images which we have given you – and mostly those which you have given us, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer – our Father, Son and Holy Spirit - our newborn infant in a feeding troth and our ruler on the throne of eternity. Amen.
(SUNG) ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME! LET ANGEL’S PROSTRATE FALL; BRING FORTH THE ROYAL DIADEM AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL! BRING FORTH THE ROYAL DIADEM, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL.

I’m sure that it comes as a surprise to none of you that I find male dominated imagery and language as it references God and God’s presence among us as difficult, to say the least. Part of the reason for this is that imagery and language so powerfully shape our perceptions and realities that I would like those who are growing in faith and knowledge of the love of God to be able to broaden their concepts and images of who and what God can be for them in their lives. Jesus was, I think, aware of this when in the narrative of the synoptic Gospels we hear quoted “How I have longed to gather you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” The truth of the nature of the Divine is that God is neither male nor female. We who have written and preached about this God since the beginning of our relationship have tended to skew our imagery and language toward the masculine depictions with which we are all familiar. God as Father, and God as King are not easily transposed in our culture to God as Mother and God as Queen. Part of my attempt to address this cultural bias is to be as intentional as I can be to remove any reference to God in gender specific terms and consequently to drop all pronoun references and only use terms which are gender neutral. That can work to some extent; yet still we reach days in the church or liturgical year which have historically been referenced to various aspects of our human understanding of the nature of God. Today is one such day – today is the last Sunday of Pentecost and therefore the feast of Christ the King.

The imagery and metaphors around that imagery in our scripture references this morning also point toward this recognition of God as the ruler (or King) of the universe and Jesus as having come to bring a fulfillment of God’s reign (or Kingdom) among us through the incarnation of God made human in Jesus and living and dying as one of us; yet fulfilling God’s purpose for us by rising from the dead and destroying death forever. In the apocryphal vision of the Hebrew prophet Daniel – we Christians see “the one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven”, as the second coming of our Christ whose “dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away.” Our second reading, from the Christian apocryphal literature of the Revelation of John points toward Jesus as the firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth…whom we see coming with the clouds…the alpha and the omega…who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

(SUNG) YE HEIRS OF ISRAEL’S CHOSEN REACE, YE RANSOMED OF THE FALL, HAIL HIM WHO SAVES YOU BY HIS GRACE, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL! HAIL HIM WHO SAVES YOU BY HIS GRACE, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL!

It is, however, in the Evangelist’s telling from the author of John’s Gospel which we heard this morning wherein Jesus tells the Roman Governor and ruler of the Judean territory what is really true about his nature and about his Kingdom. Pilate concerned mostly, if not entirely for the political ramifications of Jesus’ claim to power; asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus, as is typical for those of us familiar with his rhetorical style answers the question with a question. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Here Jesus is using this rhetorical style for clarification rather than as an opportunity for further education; that is Jesus wants to know, where did you get this title for me? The author of this Gospel narrative has already explained in great detail in previous Chapters that Jesus has been avoiding the status of kingship. For example after the feeding of the five thousand Jesus withdraws from the crowds because they were “about to come and take him by force to make him king.” Jesus will continue to push back from the title of King in this exchange with Pilate. “You say that I am a King.” Also we will gain some insight into the nature of Jesus’ “kingdom” in this exchange. “My kingdom is not from this world.” Jesus does not draw the power of the Kindom of God from any earthly source; and therefore can indeed claim that God’s Kindom is come in his person – and ask that the Kindom come, and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus’ confrontation with the political power of his day is then, not about power; but rather about truth. Pilate, being a shrewd and savvy member of the power structure of Rome knows only how to view Kings and subjects in as much as they will present a threat to the empire and his own political power. Jesus – who speaks and lives from the position of truth – knows that power and position are fleeting concepts, which provide no interest in the reign of God. Jesus claims the power of God’s dominion; God’s reign and that power is based in truth. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

(SUNG) LET EVERY KINDRED, EVERY TRIBE, ON THIS TERRESTIAL BALL, TO HIM ALL MAJESTY ASCRIBE, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL! TO HIM ALL MAJESTY ASCRIBE, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL!

So, here I find myself preaching on the feast of Christ the King and wondering how do we begin to understand what our language and imagery around God can do to shape the vision of the next generation of Christians? If we are conscious of describing God’s reign as radically inclusive and open to all of God’s children; then how can we open up those images of God and Christ to our children and our children’s children so that they might be able to carry the message of hope and promise to a world which desperately needs them. This is a world which is locked in the grip of fear. Fear of the “other”, fear of the “different” whether that difference is skin color or “orthodox belief”. One way, I think, is to be brave enough as our Presiding Bishop was brave enough in her first remarks after election to push the borders of our comfortable constructs of God and God’s nature. Allow me, once again to quote from a sermon that Bishop Katharine preached to the General Convention:

“When Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world, he is saying that his rule is not based on the ability to generate fear in his subjects. A willingness to go to the cross implies vulnerability so radical, so fundamental, that fear has no impact or import. The love he invites us to imitate removes any possibility of reactive or violent response. King Jesus’ followers don’t fight back when the world threatens. Jesus calls us friends, not agents of fear…Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation – and you and I are his children. If we’re going to keep on growing into Christ-images for the world around us, we’re going to have to give up fear.

That was risky, in those first remarks which were to be carried to the world to refer to “our mother Jesus”. I think the choice was intentional and powerful and I think it served to open the hearts of those who might otherwise be deaf to the hope of the Gospel message. If we are to live in a Twenty First century understanding of God than that God needs to speak to a Twenty First century Church which is able to incorporate all sorts of images and languages to open the heart of that God for those who seek as well as for those who have already found. In my own way, I use the language of the Kindom of God as my attempt to open others ears and hearts to the good news of God in Christ. I borrowed this image from a mentor in my spiritual development, Deacon Marla McGarry Lawrence at St. Michael and All Angels in Portland. She opened for me a new way to vision the old language, which had carried so much baggage. This was also the case for someone in my former parish community who picked up on that image. I share with you a short poem which Mark Phinny sent to me one day that assured me of God’s on-going influence in my life and ministry: I offer it, not because it speaks of me or my ministry – but rather because it speaks of how our subtle uses of images and language about God can influence those with whom we come in contact, in other words those with whom we minister:


PS – a short poem
Most people know Dennis for his small ‘j’, somebody in the screen actors guild took the big ‘J’ but Dennis took that small ‘j’ and made it his. It gives a unique twist, makes people smile when they say it. I know Dennis for his missing ‘g’. I don’t know if anybody else knows about it, even him, but he taught me about the Christ with that missing ‘g’. It happened one day when he was talking about the kin – dom of God. All the crowns and thrones and carpets and scepters disappeared with that one word. The separation and fear and judgment all disappeared too. They left behind the feeling of family – the warmth and comfort of kin. Kin is like comfortable family; don’t sweat the small stuff kind of love. Run around in your stocking feet and laugh out loud! That missing ‘g’ just opens up the Word, makes it clear that it is for everybody. Kin – dom means come on in, the foods a-cooking and the family is here. I always thought that it must be kinda lonely being king, but being kin – count me in!

Opening up the language and metaphor’s that we use to refer to the Divine helps to bring the message of God to those who have found the message to be dominating and opressive and tell them that God can be a brooding hen who watches over her children; or our Mother Jesus who gives birth to a new creation. It means that we can celebrate the feast of Christ the King with the good news of the Kindom of God come among us. I pray as we end this liturgical year – that we might greet the New Year with all of the possiblities that lie before us to spread the Gospel that all might hear it with new ears and spread it with a new voice and God’s reign may come anew!

Amen

Twenty Fourth Sunday After Pentecost - Year B

Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – Year B (Proper 28) 2009
Daniel 12: 1 – 3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10: 11 – 14, 19 – 25; Mark 13: 1 – 8
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, November 15, 2009

OF GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS – OF BEGININGS AND ENDS

Let us pray: Savior Jesus, you came to us as “good news”; as the answer to our questions, the light in our darkness, the hope in our despair. In you, we experience the near and loving presence of God, embracing us. Reaching out to us. In this life, O God we have bad things happen to us. We discover that we are not as secure, not as safe from tragedy as we think. Bad news breaks in upon us and we feel engulfed, threatened by sadness and difficulty. Holy One again and again you come and turn our bad news to good news, you come and work with us, stand beside us, embrace us. Even in the difficulty especially there you are with us. You are not only our friend, our teacher and our guide; but also our savior. Save us from the things that threaten us. Save us from our despair. Bearer of our hope; savior of our world – our best good news hear us when we pray. Amen.

(SUNG) DEEP WITHIN I WILL PLANT MY LAW; NOT ON STONE
BUT IN THEIR HEARTS. FOLLOW ME, I WILL TAKE YOU BACK
YOU WILL BE MY OWN AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD.

We are all pretty familiar with the Good News/Bad News setup in our society. I’ve got some good news for you, and some bad news the setup goes. So here’s the bad news; I was in bed the later part of this week feeling like I’d been run over by a Mack truck. I didn’t run a fever so I’m guessing it wasn’t the H1N1 virus leading to swine flu. Here’s the good news my sermon this morning is going to be shorter than usual since I didn’t have the preparation time (10:00 AM and I’m not going to make you listen to the sermon in Portuguese that Marcos delivered at the Misa em Portuguese celebrated as the vigil last evening). I do, however, have a good news/bad news story for you. Jim was an incredible baseball fan. In fact Jim was such a fan that he made his wife swear a vow with him. Whoever died first had to swear that they would communicate with the other when they died to find out if there was baseball in heaven. As it happened, Jim’s wife died after a long and wonderful life. A few days after the funeral, Jim was getting ready for bed and he felt his wife’s presence in the room with him. A familiar voice rose up and he heard her say: “Jim I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is your Pitching on Tuesday.

So we will note that we get apocalyptic texts as we reach the end of our liturgical year; we are moving towards the end of that year, the end of the Gospel text attributed to Mark and so Jesus speaks to the disciples about the end of the world. “Apocalyptic” doesn’t mean destruction, ending or strange events. Apocalyptic means “unveiling”, “revealing.” Before Jesus goes into the events that will lead us to the cross, he let his disciples in on the final act, a glimpse of the future. Here toward the end of the church year, the church has an opportunity to reflect upon “the end,” to ask, “Is this the finale, the bad news of cataclysmic destruction?” Or, “Is this really the good news of a birth, a beginning, a cataclysmic creation of something new?” God is a God of creation, but rarely can creation be wrought without some dismantling, destruction, and re-creation. It is that aspect of God’s creative work that is the Good News of our Gospel text this morning.

You don’t hear a text like today’s Gospel often preached in a Church like ours. Mainline Protestantism doesn’t often use literature like the Book of Daniel or Mark 13, “apocalyptic” biblical literature. Those popular “Left Behind” books weren’t written by an Episcopalian. Why? People on top, people in power, people whose children are well fed, well housed, and well futured do not care for apocalyptic literature that speaks of ending and of the destruction of the present order. After all, the present order has been very good to people like us. To hear that God plans to allow the destruction of all our eternal looking achievements is bad news indeed. C.S. Lewis says that most of us Christians are “too easily pleased.” There is this human tendency to imbue human institutions and humanly created situation with divine permanence, as if God created everything that now is. Passages like Mark 13 remind us that God isn’t done with us or our world. When we discover, as we did this week, that our old dusty moon is brimming with life giving water; we can begin to hear the Good News that God is not done with our creation. Sometimes things can’t be made new until the old is destroyed. Sometimes there can’t be birth until there is death. In the falling leaves that are dying and falling to the earth in decay; comes the fecund mulch that will give birth to the bulbs hiding underneath the soil they cover.

(SUNG) DEEP WITHIN I WILL PLANT MY LAW; NOT ON STONE
BUT IN THEIR HEARTS. FOLLOW ME, I WILL TAKE YOU BACK
YOU WILL BE MY OWN AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD.

Have any of you here had to die in order to live? Does someone here know what it is like to have your “temple” destroyed, only to be replaced by something much better? Has your very bad news ever become very good news? In my last parish one of my dearest supporters and friends shared with me, “When my husband died, my life was over, I told God, ‘I’ve got nothing to live for now. My world is destroyed.’ But wonder of wonders, I didn’t die. I went on, not with the same life, but with a new life. I wouldn’t have chosen for my marriage to end, to be alone, yet that was the life I got and I must say, it’s turned out for the best. I have my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and they bring me great joy and hope. Now that’s someone who knew the move from bad news to good.

It is only human to cling tightly to what we know, what we have. Maybe its divine to give birth, sometimes painful birth, to a future that is new. Perhaps we come to church to learn how to look for God’s hand, even in the news that seems bad, to expect God to work, to continue to create good news – to continue to birth the Gospel. The Good News of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as told to the community that knew the author of Mark’s text is the Good News that we have been focusing upon this year. It is a Gospel that contains many sad events – the incomprehension and infidelity of the disciples, the growing hostility of the religious and political authorities of that time, and finally the bloody crucifixion of the savior of the world. Yet this Gospel attributed to Mark begins by saying that all of this, including the bad, is “The beginning of the Good News” way back in Chapter 1 at Verse 1. I had always thought that Mark 13, foretelling the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem was bad news, Jesus on a bad day. However, to the person who has been abused, thrown down by this world, the news that this world will be thrown down is good news. For God to say, “This world is not your ultimate home. I am still working, and will work, to make this world, my world in all of its goodness and fullness.” This is good news; this is Gospel “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the son of God.”

Amen.

Twenty Third Sunday After Pentecost - Year B

Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost – Year B, Proper 27 (RCL) 2009
1 Kings 17: 8 – 16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9: 24 – 28; Mark 12: 38 – 44
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, November 8, 2009

OF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS, OF GOSPEL AND GOOD NEWS

Let us pray: Holy God we are often tempted to use what we offer to you and to others as a way to impress ourselves or our neighbors with the magnanimity of our generosity. You see deep into our hearts and know the true value of our gifts. Help us to avoid the easy answers – to seek the root causes of hunger and poverty as we strive to feed the hungry and uplift the poor among us. Guide our hearts to do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you – our God. Amen.

(SUNG) GOD SENT ME TO BRING THE GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR
TELL PRISONERS THAT THEY ARE PRISONERS NO MORE
TELL BLIND PEOPLE THAT THEY CAN SEE – AND SET THE
DOWNTRODDEN FREE – AND GO TELL EVERYONE THE NEWS
NEWS THAT THE KINDOM OF GOD HAS COME. GO TELL
EVERYONE THE NEWS THAT GOD’S KINDOM HAS COME.

I have to admit to you that I do not like pennies. I find them to be useless and often leave them in those little penny boxes in front of cash registers at convenience stores and in the coin return drops that are becoming more and more common at super markets. I truly believe that the cost of items should be rounded up to the nearest nickel so that we didn’t have to deal with pennies. I have a large ceramic bowl on my dresser which I fill up with those pennies that do happen to get into my pocket, and then once a year or so give them to a friend who collects them for her two children’s educational fund. She has many people giving her their pennies – so I guess I’m not the only person who would rather not deal with them. Her children are now 13 and 12 and other people’s pennies have contributed approximately three thousand dollars to their educational fund. Not, by any means, the bulk of what is needed to pay for a college education. Rather it might help to defer the cost of textbooks for a few years of that education. The widow in the author of Mark’s Gospel story that we heard this morning is at the end of her resources. She might have been glad to have the pennies of which I am so disdainful. Yet even given the little which she has – she gives all back to God. In the patriarchal society of that time the widow found herself at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale. The widow had no resource on which she could ever hope to improve her station; consequently that was why the religious/spiritual community was called upon to provide some respite for the widows. Here, though, the author begins by having Jesus calling down upon the traditional protector of the widows and warn of their deception. Beware of the scribes Jesus says. The scribes are often paired in the Gospel accounts with the Pharisees and I must admit that when I would hear the Gospel narration I often thought the two to be synonymous. They were not. The scribes were members of an ancient profession, made up of people who could read and write (a rarity in the first century of the Common Era). Scribes originally acted as secretaries of state, but then, when the nation of Israel lost its independence, they turned their attention to matters of the law. In the time of Jesus, the scribes were allies of the Pharisees, who supplemented the ancient written law with their traditions. Beware of the scribes Jesus says, beware of the lawyers. Jesus certainly had a problem with the elite scribes of the time, men who liked to strut around town in long robes, enjoy places of honor at banquets, grab the best seats in the synagogues, and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. They seem to care little about the truth of God, or the welfare of poorer members of the society, and Jesus condemns them for saying long prayers for the sake of appearance, and devouring “widow’s houses”. What exactly is meant by that last phrase is unclear – though it may be a reference to the practice of a kind of parasitic relationship with the rich widows of Jerusalem, offering guardianship or companionship in exchange for a life of wealth and power. At any rate, Jesus denounces these lawyers for such selfish and self-serving relationships. Jesus is condemning the scribes for turning away from their role as experts in religious law, and putting their energy into acquiring social power and influence.

A modern parable: There once was a man who lived in suburbia America with a great job, three kids, a wonderful wife and an income of $300,000 a year. He had investments in IRAs, CDs and mutual funds. He was considered a good man in his town and in his church. His Rector especially loved him because he gave $10,000 to the building fund and was one of the top tithers in the church. This man is on the vestry, teaches Sunday school (even though he is gone half the year on business) and his wife somehow manages to do special music once a month. There is also a single mother who goes to this same church and lives in the same town. She works nights as a janitor at Wal-Mart for minimum wage just to support her two kids, who are in elementary school. She’s a faithful every Sunday attendee at church and puts a donation in the offering plate every week at considerable personal sacrifice. After paying the bills and buying food there isn’t much to give, but she gives it. It’s not much, but it’s sure more than 10 percent of her paltry income. She is also involved heavily in her community. She participates in every outreach ministry the church has organized. One Sunday morning, the church decides to put up a huge plaque in the lobby to recognize the most generous and faithful givers. The man is number one on the list and the woman’s name appears nowhere.

(SUNG) GOD SENT ME TO BRING THE GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR
TELL PRISONERS THAT THEY ARE PRISONERS NO MORE
TELL BLIND PEOPLE THAT THEY CAN SEE – AND SET THE
DOWNTRODDEN FREE – AND GO TELL EVERYONE THE NEWS
NEWS THAT THE KINDOM OF GOD HAS COME. GO TELL
EVERYONE THE NEWS THAT GOD’S KINDOM HAS COME.

This sermon song is based on the text from the Prophet Isaiah’s 61st Chapter, which was one of the readings chosen by The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori for her service of investiture as the Twenty Sixth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and the first female primate in the history of the Anglican Communion. I was privileged to have been present at that service in Washington’s National Cathedral in 2006. I have many memories of that glorious chapter in our in our Church’s history. This morning I would like to share just a small piece of the sermon which the Presiding Bishop gave at that service:

“That vision of home-going and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual yearning is also the job assignment each one of us gets in Baptism – go home, and while you’re at it, help build a home for everyone else on earth. For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal.

There’s a wonderful Hebrew word for that vision and work – shalom. It doesn’t just mean the sort of peace that comes when we’re no longer at war. It’s that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board, it’s a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed, it’s a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given, it is a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another, it’s a vision of a world where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God. Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation. It is that vision of the lion lying down with the lamb and the small child playing over the den of the adder, where the specter of death no longer holds sway. It is that vision to which Jesus points when he says, “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. To say “shalom” is to know our own place and to invite and affirm the place of all of the rest of creation, once more at home in God.”

I am filled with such hope for the future of our Church, even in its struggles with that woman at the helm of it! I am certain that God’s Holy Spirit will send to us, to be consecrated by Presiding Bishop Katharine the shepherd who will lead us in this diocese in the years ahead so that we might spread the Good News of God’s promised Kindom in this place in the world.

Jesus is close to the end of public ministry when we reach the events which the Gospel narrates this morning – one final chapter of the author of Mark’s account remains for Jesus to leave one last teaching opportunity with the disciples before the events of holy week and death and resurrection will come to fulfillment in God’s Messiah. Jesus highlights for them the example of the widow who generously, graciously and quietly gives all that she has to God – trusting that God will provide all that she needs. I wish I had that kind of faith. With that kind of faith we could truly “Say Yes” to the vision of this place in God’s Kindom where we have chosen to live out our ministries. I wish I had that trust in the shalom of God.

God wants from us nothing less than everything. When we are wise enough to grasp that concept, then God can return to us all that we can ask or desire. It is the letting go, the leap of faith, the willingness to drop all that we have into the hands of our God who needs nothing from us – and offers everything to us if only we will surrender our hearts in service to God and to our neighbor.

(SUNG) AND GO TELL EVERYONE, THE NEWS THAT GOD’S KINDOM
HAS COME!

AMEN