Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church

The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Acting on Faith

B8: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130

2 Corinthians 8:7-15 & Mark 5:21-43

Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen [BCP, 260].

Our New Testament lessons today have a common theme of responding to the poverty of others and inviting us to participate in the generosity of God to the poor. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul himself is doing a little fund-raising, a weekend telethon for the famine which was starving the saints in Jerusalem, the mother church. Now Corinth was a wealthy seaport, probably not unlike modern San Francisco, with the same variety of lifestyles and new age religions. Now Macedonia, was a poor region but even in spite of their poverty they gave generously for the hungry in Jerusalem. Now, Paul doesn’t want to command the same level of giving to the Corinthians, but certainly they don’t want to lag behind the folks in Oakland in terms of giving, now, do they? Certainly he doesn’t want them to become poor by giving all to the poor, but he does want them to give generously, for it is in giving generously that they themselves live into the generosity of Christ’s gift of life to them. If Jesus would become poor in order to make us rich, shouldn’t we follow his example? In fact, it’s only as we pattern our giving upon that of God, that we receive the riches of God’s blessings. For the blessings are in the giving itself as we share the divine life of service and joy. This kind of giving can’t be commanded because it soon becomes a legalism.

As a parish, we once financed our services through tithes and taxes as the established church of the borough. After the Revolution, we petitioned the General Assembly to allow us to sponsor a lottery to pay for a new roof. But ever since then, we’ve struggled to make a budget. At times, we act as if we were a civic organization counting up the number of people who attend and dividing the budget accordingly, either charging pew rent or else more subtly letting people know what their fair share is and how close they’ve gotten to meeting the vestry’s goal. At other times, we’ve let the vestry or a few wealth families bear the cost for the parish and it’s deferred maintenance and neglected repairs. Now, with these ways of fund-raising it’s easy to lay a guilt trip on everyone and let them know that they aren’t paying their fair share. But that’s not the way of Jesus or Paul or me.

Instead of focusing on what we don’t have, what we don’t do, we need to start with the basics. And the basic fact is that we are a wealthy and blessed parish. God has given us great blessings and material wealth, each and every one of us. Very few of us need to worry if we are going to eat today. All of us have a place to sleep tonight. By the world’s standards, by God’s standards, we are materially quite wealthy. But instead of feeling wealthy, we feel poor. We fear poverty, we fear that our money, our security will run out. We worry about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. And instead of being a blessing, our wealth becomes a burden. But God invites us to change our attitude, to see our material wealth as a blessing that can be used to bless others. When we begin by counting our blessings, by thanking God for what we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have, then we see that we have more than enough. And like the people of Macedonia, we do give generously for those in trouble, helping refugees from the Sudan, or feeding the poor in Park Place or contributing to ministries like Ghent Area Ministry. In emergencies, such as Katrina, we are quite generous because they challenge us to acknowledge our prosperity in relationship to the unfortunate. For this generosity, I give thanks and I think Paul himself would commend us. But I also think Paul would challenge us as he challenged the Corinthians to learn how to give generously on a regular basis. And while Paul would probably endorse the tithe, giving ten percent, as a minimum level of giving to the Church, more importantly, he would stress the need to give in order to grow spiritually. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in giving that we begin to understand the generosity of God, that we begin to live like Jesus.

Now, I believe it will take a miracle to change the giving habits of this parish that have been ingrained for close to three hundred years. But miracles are precisely what the kingdom of God is all about. We witness two miracles in the Gospel this morning. Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, is desperate. His daughter is dying and he desperately needs a miracle. He humbles himself and comes to Jesus. Here is the leader of the community bowing down to Jesus and asking for his help. And Jesus speaks the word to him that we need to hear, “Do not fear, only believe.” Believe in the power of God to change our situation, no matter how desperate, how hopeless. And as Jesus moves towards his house, he is interrupted by a poor desperate woman. A woman who has been bleeding for 12 years, whose funds are gone to the physicians who were unable to help her. But she believes that if she just touches the hem of Jesus’ tunic, she will be healed. Her faith leads her to this desperate act. She knows that she is unclean. She should not be here contaminating these other people, let alone daring to touch a rabbi. But her faith compels her to reach out to Jesus. And by her faith, she is healed. Jesus feels the power going out from him and stops to see who touched him. The disciples are annoyed. How could Jesus know someone touched him when the whole crowd is jostling them? And you can imagine how anxious Jairus himself was with this interruption. Time was running out and Jesus was stopping? Stopping for an untouchable, contaminated woman! But Jesus does stop. Jesus does care for the poor, the nameless, the hurting of our world. And he forces the woman to identify herself in order that others would now know that she was healed, that she was once again part of society. To Jesus she was as important a person as Jairus the leader of the community. But at this point, poor Jairus’ faith was stretched to the limit. By the time they arrive at the house, they see the commotion and understand that his daughter is dead. But Jesus knows the girl will be healed. He takes with him into the house those who have faith, those who believe in the power of God, who believe in miracles. And there he heals her and cares for her as he instructs the family to feed her.

The challenge to Jairus, the challenge to us is to believe. To believe in the power of God to work miracles to lead us out of fear into trust, confidence in the blessings of God. To see the world from God’s perspective, to see how blessed we are and to share those blessings with others. To care for those who interrupt us with their needs. To care for the poor, the hungry, the sick, those in jail, to care for them, as God cares for us. And as we do, we will discover our blessings, how much God has given to us and enter into God’s kingdom where there is no fear and more than enough for everyone, if we will only trust Jesus and give as he gives to us. Amen.

The Third Sunday after Pentecost

B:7 1 Samuel 17:32-49; 2 Cor. 6:1-13

& Mark 4:35- 41

Chaos and Patterns

We thank you God for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love; but above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen. [BCP, p. 836, edited]

During the last few decades a new science of chaos has emerged as scientists from diverse fields began to recognize patterns and repeating symmetries amidst and at the heart of the chaotic behavior they were studying, whether it was meteorology or cardiology, the swirling patterns of smoke or the whorls of water in a flowing stream. Over and over again, patterns were discovered and seen in what seems to be random, chaotic behavior. This science of chaos is fascinating, but beyond enjoying the beauty of the fractal images and the designs from some cosmic Spirograph, I’m quickly lost in the mathematical wilderness that supports the theories. Still this discovery that nature forms patterns is similar and analogous to the discovery of God in the midst of our lives. That despite all the chaos, all the confusion and unpredictability of life, at the heart of life is this sense of order, of calmness, of peace, of the Word of God. The Word of God which calls creation into existence, which orders and sustains the universe, which stills the storms, bringing peace and health, the Word of God which calls us to be still and to know God.

In his letter to the Church at Corinth, Paul speaks of this divine perspective, as he tells about enduring the afflictions of a disbelieving world through the gifts of the Spirit that allow him to rejoice in the midst of his suffering. Despite the chaos of the world, Paul knows the peace of God’s love and he encourages the Corinthians and us to open wide our hearts to receive this love.

The power of this love, the power of God’s Word is most evident in today’s gospel. At night, in the midst of a storm, Jesus silences the wind and calls the water to be still, echoing that moment of creation when the Word of God moved over the face of the waters and the world was brought forth out of chaos. The disciples are frightened by the storm, terrified that they would drown, but this display of God’s power is even more overwhelming, and they wonder in awe who Jesus is, that the wind and sea obey him. Who is this teacher, whose words command nature, whose life has transformed the world? With two words: Quiet, Still, Jesus commands the wind and sea to return to order. His disciples are terrified because clearly only God can do this. After the resurrection they will understand who Jesus is, but for now, they are terrified.

I often wonder which was scarier for them —the storm or Jesus stopping the storm? At least they were familiar with unexpected storms arising suddenly on the Sea of Galilee, but to have God directly intervene in one’s life is more unexpected. And this is where Jesus’ rebuke seems so out of place. How often in the midst of chaos and suffering have we wondered if God cared? If God was present? Jesus reminds them to have faith. This is what can carry us through the tough times. It is the knowledge, it is the trust, that God is with us in the midst of suffering, in the midst of chaos. We are not alone. By faith, David was able to face Goliath. By faith, Paul endured his sufferings. By faith, the disciples were empowered to share the Gospel throughout the world.

Far from abandoning the world to the powers of chaos, God is at work in the midst of the world. God is at work in our lives. In Jesus Christ, God has entered into the chaos of creation to restore the order, the pattern of love. Into the very depths of death, God has gone to break the power of death and to lead us into the new creation, the presence of God’s love. In Jesus, we know God’s love not just as the pattern, the rhythm of life, but as a personal relationship with us. That God is with each of us, in the very depths of our being, by the Holy Spirit revealing to us Christ’s presence in our midst, and through us, revealing Christ to the world. Amidst all the wrong, the evil, the senseless chaos of this world, we know the truth of God’s presence with us, calling the world to be at peace, to be still and to know God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Second Sunday after Pentecost

B6: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Psalm 20;

2 Corinthians 5:6-17 & Mark 4:26-34

The Face of the Church

Almighty and most merciful God, grant that by the indwelling of your Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened for your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen [BCP, 251].

For many years I was working towards a dissertation on a French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. His personal life mirrored the profound political changes of Europe during the last century. He was born in Lithuania in 1906 when it was still part of Czarist Russia. His family moved during the Russian Revolution to the Ukraine. He attended college in France and studied with Husserl and Heidegger in Germany. He was mobilized by the French army during World War II. He was captured and served in a labor camp for French Jewish officers. His wife and daughter were hidden in an abbey in the south of France. The rest of his family was murdered by the Nazis when they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. He rarely discussed the Holocaust in his philosophical writings, but it clearly influenced his thinking. His key idea was that in the face of the other we are commanded by God to care for the other person. The simplest examples are the ads in magazines with photos of Third World children whom we are implored to adopt. We may ignore the request and turn the page, but for a moment we are arrested by their faces and hear the command to care for this person. In Ethics and Infinity, he writes:

The first word of the face is the “Thou shalt not kill.” It is an order. There is a commandment in the appearance of the face, as if a master spoke to me. However, at the same time, the face of the Other is destitute; it is the poor for whom I can do all and to whom I owe all.

Against the tendency to see people as faceless masses or numbers in a bureaucracy, Levinas reminds us of the uniqueness and holiness of each and every person whom we encounter.

While his own work is supported by the history of Western philosophy and an appeal to Jewish texts, his writings have influenced a number of Christian theologians because they resonate so strongly with the teachings of Jesus. When Jesus tells the story of the sheep and the goats, he explains how when the righteous cared for the poor and hungry or visited those in jail they were doing it for Jesus himself. And this is I think what Paul is addressing in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way [5:16, NRSV]. When he was persecuting the early Church, Paul saw Jesus only as a rabbi who had led his followers astray. After his experience of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul no longer saw Jesus only from a human point of view. He discovered Jesus’ divinity. But conversely Paul also discovered a new way of viewing all human beings from a divine perspective. In Genesis, we learn that we all are created in the image and likeness of God, but now by the resurrection of Jesus we all of the possibility of becoming like Christ.

Through the resurrection of Jesus, Paul’s whole way of viewing the world changed. It is what we today would call a paradigm shift. Suddenly everything is changed. By baptism we are all part of a new creation, the old way of thinking and seeing things has changed. And Paul applies this to everyone, Christians and Non-Christians. We no longer see anyone from solely a human point of view; we also see them from God’s perspective. Paul is inviting us to see everyone as Jesus sees them. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with others, we are invited to see what is right, what is God like in them. Instead of being negative we are called to be positive. As one commentator put it, we are called to see possibilities instead of disabilities. We are called to learn like Samuel to see not what’s outside, but, like God, to see the heart of each and every person. We are called to respond to the divine possibility of salvation for each and every person, even if that possibility seems as tiny as a mustard seed to us. Jesus died for all, so that everyone can be saved.

Now, I believe that we all have fallen short of the glory of God and that it is important to preach and teach about human sin. We need to examine our own lives and see where we have isolated ourselves from God and others. But we must never use the doctrine of sin as a way of condemning others or ourselves. One of the paradoxes of today is that we are in an age of rampant narcissism and self-promotion, and yet so many people feel worthless, that their lives are meaningless. As Christians, we are called to see the value of each and every person as a child of God. We are called to see the face of Jesus in each person and to care for them. But we also need to see that we too are of an infinite value to God. We may not understand how a mustard seed grows, or why God loves us with an eternal and infinite love, but God does. By baptism, we are changed. We are invited to see the world through the eyes of Jesus and to see like God. This entails a great responsibility. In a sense we are all priests, viewing the world and each other as sacraments of God’s love. “See, everything has become new! [2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV]. Amen.

Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 6:1-8; Ps 29 or Canticle 13

Romans 8:12-17 & John 3:1-17

Keep It Simple Stupid

Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace to continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen [BCP, 251].

One of the basic axioms of public speaking or preaching is the acronym kiss: keep it simple, stupid. This is especially the case for today when we celebrate Trinity Sunday, the only holy day based on a doctrine about God rather than an event in the life of Jesus or of the people of God. Now I understand that most of us are confused about the doctrine of the Trinity and what we mean when we say one God in Trinity of Persons. This hit home for me last summer during our interfaith Bible studies with the people of Temple Israel and Freemason Baptist Church. The Jewish members said they didn’t understand the Trinity and the Christian members had a hard time explaining it. A number of them gave up and the rest of us sounded like we were explaining astrophysics instead of talking about God. I can understand why our Jewish brothers and sisters question us for this complication in our talk about God. God is one, period. And there are some scholars who believe that Islam itself is a reaction to the Trinitarian debates that were splintering the Church in the 8^{th century. Islam, like Judaism is Unitarian: one God, period. For both Jesus is a teacher and a prophet, but no more. And that is the heart of the issue, because for us Jesus is more than just a human being; He is also God.We speak of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit because of our experience of Jesus as God. With Jews and Muslims we affirm that there is only one God. And both have similar experience to ours in describing God as Father and as Spirit. All of us have the sense of God as the Supreme Being who transcends creation, and of God within us directing us towards God and caring for each other. The problem is Jesus. Jesus is God with us. For Jews and Muslims, God can not be a human being. We say that Jesus is both human and God. We affirm both because Jesus lived as a human being among us and because we are saved by him. Since only God can save us, Jesus must be God. Jesus taught us about the triune nature of God when he prayed to God the Father and gave us the gift of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. We affirm the Triune nature of God when we say the Creeds and whenever we pray to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not a human invention but rather an attempt to describe both who God is and how God is one in Three Persons. Our experience of God is of God who has chosen to live among us in order to reestablish a relationship between us and God. For us, the very being of God is one of relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with us.}

Now I know it’s much simpler and easier to be a Unitarian and be done with all this talk about Three Persons. There is just God and us. And once you take this step, you say that Jesus is and can only be human, not divine. It makes life much simpler. But it is literally throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Because the mystery of Christianity is the mystery of the depth of God’s love for us. Why would God chose to be a human being? If we were God, we wouldn’t do this for us. We don’t think that we are worth it. But God does and this is the heart of our faith in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now I suspect most of us aren’t lying awake at night worrying about the Trinity, how God can be One in Three Persons. Although there was a time when this was the most pressing issue for all Christians. No, I suspect most of us are lying awake worrying about our jobs: Will I still have one tomorrow? Or how can I get a new job? Who will hire me? Or we are worrying about our finances—Can I pay my mortgage, my credit cards, the college tuition? Or healthcare costs—healthcare costs are a major cause of bankruptcy. Many of us are a single illness away from financial catastrophe. We are all worried about the economy. We feel powerless, fearful and paralyzed. Worst of all, we feel isolated and alone. The last thing we will talk about is our financial failures and fears. It is the great taboo subject. And so we lie awake at night, scared, alone and frightened. This is the spirit of slavery that Paul addresses in his Letter to the Romans, but he reminds us that we are not alone. We have been adopted by God to be children of God. Through Jesus we have become God’s children and given the Spirit of God to call God Father, Abba, just as Jesus did. This is the mystery of love that Jesus sought to share with Nicodemus. God send God’s Son Jesus not to condemn us but to save us. We are saved by the mystery of God’s love for us by Jesus. God has not abandoned us to be slaves of our fears, but to set us free from fear itself.

The great challenge for us today is to live out the truth of the Trinity. We are part of God’s loving relationship, of the Father for the Son for the Holy Spirit for us. Through Jesus we are invited into this dance of eternal love. Like Nicodemus, we wonder how this can be, but because we have known God’s love in Jesus, we accept the mystery of this love as the reality upon which we can build our lives. You are of infinite worth to God. And by the power of the Holy Spirit you can reach out and help others who are paralyzed by fear. Our challenge is to find ways to share the love of Jesus with those who can’t even love themselves now. So many of us define ourselves by our work and financial worth. Years ago we use to host a lunch for lawyers downtown when there was a dearth of restaurants. Today we don’t need to serve lunch but perhaps we could find a way of reaching out to the business men and women downtown to talk about the economy and finding work. Empowered by the Holy Spirit we have an opportunity here to make real the love of God in Jesus. It’s not rocket science; we can keep it simple. It’s just a way of sharing the love of Jesus with those dying to hear that they too are of infinite value and loveable. In God’s Name, Father, son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sunday of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21; Ps. 104; Romans 8:22-27 & John 15:26-27, 16:4-15

In the Spirit

Almighty and most merciful God, grant that by the indwelling of your Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened for your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

There’s a phenomenon in sports when the person playing can do no wrong, every shot, every movement is natural and perfect. It’s a series of strikes in bowling, a no-hitter in baseball; a hole-in-one in golf; it’s Tiger Woods sinking a putt or LeBron James effortlessly making an impossible basket. In those grace-filled moments, there’s no separation between the mind and the body, both are in harmony and without consciously thinking about it, one plays perfectly. Psychologists call it being in the flow. A similar magic can happen on the stage, it can happen in our liturgy, suddenly we are carried up into the mystery, and without losing a sense of who we are, we aren’t focused upon ourselves but rather the power and energy of the moment, a sense of transcendence, a sense of community, a feeling of being one with all the people present. Back to sports, it’s the spirit of the crowd watching a close game, suddenly all the attention is focused on the playing field, everyone is cheering together; everyone holds their breath at the critical moment. Players and spectators are at one, all caught up in the game, in the flow.

At nine o’clock in the morning without warning, the early Church suddenly found itself in the flow. With a sound like a mighty wind, with flames of fire, the Holy Spirit baptized the disciples who were gathered in prayer, waiting for direction from God. In spite of his denial of Jesus at the trail, Peter suddenly found himself able to preach the good news of Jesus to all of Jerusalem on this Pentecost Sunday some 2,000 years ago. Just as Jesus had promised them, Peter and the disciples found themselves filled with God’s Holy Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, they suddenly were filled with a joy and an exuberance, with a faith that had to be told, had to be shared with everyone. It wasn’t enough to speak in Aramaic with a Galilean accent, no, to tell what was happening every tongue, every language was spoken. And all who heard them, heard them in his or her native tongue. What was going on? How could these fishermen, these peasants, speak Greek or Latin, or Arabic and Coptic, Parthian and Persian? Either they were drunk or God was doing some mighty act that day.

As Peter spoke to the crowd, the Spirit of God moved the people, so that despite the scoffers and the deniers, the rationalists and the prim and proper, 3,000 people were baptized that day. No longer afraid, the Church was empowered to share the good news of Jesus. The time of preparation was over, the disciples received their marching orders from God and the world itself has never been the same.

There is such a wonderful exuberance in the Holy Spirit. Like the beauty of butterflies and orchids, hummingbirds and roses, rainbows and sunsets, there is a divine creativity at work on Pentecost. For three years, Jesus has carefully taught and trained his followers. He sends them out two by two to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom, God’s reign. He empowers them to heal the sick, to share their meager belongings with each other, to learn to trust God the Father in all their prayers and petitions. Everything has been as neat and orderly as can be expected with a rag tag army of Galileans. And, as best he can, Jesus teaches them about his death and resurrection. The bad news of Calvary just about destroys their spirit. At the first sight of the Roman soldiers, they scatter and lose their voices. On that first Easter, they huddle together afraid of the authorities. But then Jesus shows up again and suddenly there is a joy to life that they had forgotten. Bread and wine tasted good again. It is a wonderful experience to be forgiven. And now, despite all the single mindedness of Jesus, all his careful deliberations and prayerful decisions, it’s as if God says to heck with it, let’s pull out all the stops, let’s really have fun and tell everyone the good news. Why speak the Gospel in Greek when you can tell the story in 70 tongues besides? And so the Church begins telling its story of salvation to anyone and everyone who will listen.

On Pentecost, we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit. God enters our lives and unites us one to another, the Spirit makes us the Church. Each of us has a special tongue, a special language, a special experience or gift that God wants us to use together to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. Some of us are wise, some are filled with faith, others have gifts of healing, or can work miracles, some can prophecy, some can speak in tongues, some can interpret, but all of us have gifts of the Spirit, that God wants us to use together for the common good, not just for St. Paul’s, but for all of Hampton Roads and all the people whose lives we touch. And when we let go and let God, when we trust the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us, we, like Peter, will discover the flow of God’s love. We won’t worry about mission statements or evangelism workshops, we’ll just share the good news: Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:6-19

On earth as it is in heavenAlmighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen [BCP, 255].

Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter which is the Sunday after the Ascension and the Sunday before Pentecost. As such it is a Sunday between times, between the departure of Jesus and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, a time of waiting upon God and discovering what it means for us to be the Church, the people of God called out of the world on behalf of the world. But for most of us, it’s really the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, a time of anticipation and preparation for the summer to come, a time of white shoes and barbeques. So what is a Christian vocation for vacation?

Now while taking a vacation is a modern luxury, Jesus would certainly have understood the importance of taking Sabbath time and keeping the Jubilee every seven years which allowed the land to lie fallow and recoup its nutrients. I realized this week that we have lost the ability to focus on God in our day-to-day work, because our work is so different from that of a farmer, fisherman, shepherd or weaver. In those occupations there is plenty of time to think and pray at work. The closest most of us come to such times are when we do the dishes, cut the grass or rake leaves. For many of us the computer screen or telephone fills our attention span with the noise of modern life. In such a situation it’s more important than ever for us to deliberate create time for God and for ourselves. One of the great themes of Easter is the re-creation of the world and the summer is an ideal time for us to focus on being re-created by God. Not only by taking time to walk by the ocean or to hike in the mountains and to reconnect with the grandeur and beauty of the world God has given us, but also by being deliberate about our vocations as Christians.

It’s easy for us to lay a guilt trip upon ourselves because we all know that we could read the Bible more and spend more time in prayer and reach out to care for others, but that’s not what I want to do this morning. What we need is not more guilt but freedom from guilt. In one way our relationship with God is like any relationship; it’s strengthened when we spend more time focusing on the other. But unlike our human relationships, God will never abandon us, instead God tries over and over again to woo us and to show us how much God loves and cares for us. In this sense it makes no sense to worry about whether or not we are doing enough for God to love us. That’s the logic of the evil one who wants us to doubt ourselves and doubt God’s love for us. No, we start with the fact that God loves us and cares for us. We then learn to trust that love and build upon it. So what does God want us to do? The easy answer is to say that God wants us to love God and to love our neighbor. But how can we do we do this?

In our Gospel this morning we see Jesus praying for us. The occasion was the Last Supper and Jesus prays that we will be holy as He is holy. As He does the will of the Father, so we will do the same in his Name. In a word, this is a prayer of consecration. Jesus makes us holy, as He is holy. It’s nothing that we have to do; Jesus has done it for us. Instead it is an invitation for us to accept this vocation of holiness and become the people he is calling us to be. We are holy people in the world but not of the world. This makes sense in light of the Ascension and the Lord’s Prayer. On the Feast of the Ascension we celebrate Jesus’ ascent into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Now heaven is not someplace up above beyond the sky, heaven is the kingdom of God. It is the power and rule of God’s love for all of creation. The contrast is between heaven and the world under the power of sin and death, of a world alienated from God. On Ascension, we celebrate the mystery that Jesus has undone what we did in the Garden of Eden. The world is now once again returning to God. Our task is to be God’s representatives of this restoration here on earth. Set free from the fear of death, we are empowered to live life abundantly and generously, sharing God’s love for all of creation, especially for our brothers and sisters who don’t yet know God’s love for them. Our prayer is that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is God’s will done? Through us. We are ambassadors of heaven here on earth. We are here for the rest of the world, till all of creation knows the fullness of God’s love. Our vocation is to be the Church.

What does it mean to be the Church? Let me read to you from a commentary on today’s Gospel passage by the Anglican missionary Lesslie Newbigin:

The work of Jesus is the communication of the name of God to a community. He does not bequeath to posterity a body of teaching preserved in a book—like the Qur’an. He does not leave behind an ideal or a program. He leaves behind a community—the Church.This community exists not because of decisions which its members have made. It is not constituted by the faith, insight, or moral excellence of its members. It exists because God has called its members out of the world by his own action and given them to Jesus. They are those whom God had chosen “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). {From The Light Has Come: An Exposition of the Fourth Gospel [Grand Rapids, MI: Eedmans, 1982] 228.}

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10: 44-48; Psalm 98;

1 John 5:1-6 & John 15:9-17

Rogation Sunday

God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of glory and praise. At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home. Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen [BCP 359 & 370 adapted].

Today we are celebrating Rogation Sunday. Originally there were four rogation days, the Major rogation which was on April 25^{th, St. Mark’s Day, and the minor rogations which are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Ascension. This Sunday today was known as Rogation Sunday because the Gospel was Jesus’ command to “ask and ye shall receive.” Rogation comes from the Latin “rogare” which means to ask, (hence you can remember Rogaine as asking God for more hair.) We pray for the crops and the harvest to come. In addition on this day, the priest would lead the parish around the parish bounds. This was known as the beating of the bounds and the parish boundary markers would be hit with birch or willow branches. In a time before maps this helped people remember the bounds or the outline of the parish. In England this tradition preceded the Church and often ended with a parish-ale or feast after the perambulation. Hence the popularity of this custom. Today, instead of offering you a beer, I’m inviting you to pick up the beer cans and other litter around the boundaries. Rogation Sunday is an ideal time for us to reflect on our ministry of care for the creation and for each other.I’d like to begin this morning with a quotation and a photograph. The quotation is from one of my favorite writers Frederick Buechner and the photograph is from NASA. From Frederick Buechner’s Journey Toward Wholeness:}

All his life long, wherever Jesus looked he saw the world not in terms simply of its brokenness–a patchwork of light and dark calling forth in us now our light, now our dark-but in term of the ultimate mystery of God’s presence buried in it like a treasure buried in a field… To be whole, I believe, is to see the world like that. To see the world like that, as Jesus saw it, is to be whole. And sometimes I believe that even people like you and me see it like that. Sometimes even in the midst of our confused and broken relationships with ourselves, with each other, with God, we catch glimpses of that holiness and wholeness that is not ours by a long shot and yet is part of who we are. [Theology Today, Vol. 49, No. 4, January 1993 from http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1993/v49-4-article1.htm].

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo17/lores/as17-148-22727.jpg

I think part of the popularity of children’s sermons are the audio visual aids and this photograph has become an icon for us of this fragile earth, our island home. Thanks to the space program we can now visualize the unity of our planet and recognize our wholeness. To paraphrase John Donne, no one is an island; we are all part of the main. We are united by our responsibility for this planet, for our common home. Thanks to mass media we are instantly aware of events around the world, from elections in India to fighting in Darfur. We are all part of a global human community. What unites us are not the ubiquitous brand name t-shirts and tennis shoes seen around the world, but the fact that we are each and every one of us created in the image and likeness of God. Like Jesus we catch glimpses of that wholeness, that holiness, of the human community, especially when we reach out to help each other.

We are accustomed to seeing the brokenness of this world. We know the power of fear and the darkness of suffering. But at Easter, we proclaim the wholeness and goodness of God’s creation. We proclaim the fact that Christ has destroyed the power of sin and death, of all that separates us from the love of God. And now we seek to live out our lives in the power of that love that created, sustains and redeems this world. Some contemporary physicists are looking for the Grand Unified Theory, GUTs, that will unite the various forces of the universe and offer an explanation for the way things work. As a theologian, I believe the doctrine of the Trinity offers a Grand Unified Theory for all of creation, but I think the 1955 sci-fi film, Revenge of the Creature, puts it best:

Y’know scientists are funny. We probe and measure and dissect. Invent lights without heat, weigh a caterpillar’s eyebrow. But when it comes to really important things we’re as stupid as the caveman…. Like love. Makes the world go ‘round, but what do we know about it? Is it a fact? Is it chemistry? Electricity? [Martin Berkeley, and Jack Arnold. Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson), Revenge of the Creature, Walking on the beach with Clete (1955). Story by William Alland (b. 1916). From: The Columbia World of Quotations, 1996 at http://www.bartleby.com/66/90/6890.html].

Love is what makes the world go ‘round. Love is the force, the power that creates the universe, that sustains and is God. The love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that continuous dance of love that seeks to share this love and so God creates a world for us to enjoy this love. Love is not just the commandment that Jesus gives to us, but Jesus is literally love incarnate. In Christ, we see and experience the power of love to recreate the world, to recreate us. Whenever we deny God’s love, whenever we act out of fear and self-centeredness, we step out of this wholeness of God’s love and discover our brokenness. But the power of God’s love forgives us and recreates us to share this love with all the world. Jesus has laid down his life in order to give us the gift of life and love. He has chosen us to offer this gift of love to the whole world. We are called to love each other in the Name of Christ, as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, but also as brothers and sisters of all those who have never heard the Name of Jesus. As we love in Christ’s Name, God abides in us and we are born again as children of God.

But just as there is a profound difference between reading physics, actually doing the experiments, and understanding the real world. So there is a difference between talking about love in general and loving specific people. It takes the grace of God to be gracious when we are tired, angry or grumpy. It’s easy to say we will be loving when we are alone. It’s another thing to actually love and care for specific, real people. That’s where having the image of the wholeness of the world helps us when we are feeling tired and broken. It reminds us to step out of our self-centeredness, our pettiness, and to focus upon God’s wholeness. For out of love, God has given us this world as a gift which we offer back to God in thanksgiving. By the power of love, we see this world as one, as whole, as holy and we have this hope of God’s peace, God’s Shalom, God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven as we love one another. As we proclaim the good news of Easter: “Alleluia! Christ has Risen! The Lord has Risen Indeed! Alleluia!” Amen.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 8:26-40; I John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8

The Mind of God

Almighty and most merciful God, grant that by the indwelling of your Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened for your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Have you ever thought about what it is that makes something new new? When I’m looking for books at the library, I always can tell instantly which titles are new. There is a crispness, a clarity, a shine to them. It’s as if the other titles had become fuzzy and drab and taken a step backwards on the shelf, while the new ones seem to strut forward proclaiming their novelty, their birth, “Hey, look at me!” There’s a similar quality to a car or a house after they’ve been cleaned. They just feel different, everything is the same and yet different. It’s as if dust itself were an invisible veil that we only notice after it’s gone. Conversely, when things are old enough there’s a patina to them, an aura of antiquity that lets us touch or feel the past. Part of the mystery of this building are the countless prayers that have been offered to God here and over the years, these prayers have sanctified and changed this space. This is a holy place and you can see its effect upon people as they enter. They become silent and start to look around, admiring the windows and seeking the source of this quality of holiness. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it easier to worship God here because of all the prayers that have come before. I know that I’m part of a great communion of saints who have come here to this holy ground to honor and give thanks to God. It’s like Jacob’s vision of the ladder from heaven, “Surely, God dwells in this place.” While I can’t define what it is that makes something new, I know that it is the Holy Spirit that makes this place holy. The holiness we feel here is the holiness of God, we sense the presence of God, hence the peace and calm which reign in this space, in this holy time of worship.

It is this same spirit that dwells in us as the people of God. Artists depict saints with halos but that’s just their attempt to capture the luminosity, the glow of God’s holy ones. At his last meal with his disciples Jesus promises them that he will be with them because his Father will send the Advocate, the counselor, the Holy Spirit. If we love Jesus, if we love one another then we will abide with Christ, we will abide with God. To abide in God means to remain in the presence of God. It is to choose to be present to God. To choose to love God and each other in the Name of God is to open our hearts, our lives to God. We literally become a temple for the Holy Spirit and all that we do as we abide with God will be touched with God’s holiness. This presence of God is the very gift of Easter. It is the power to move out of the kingdom of death into the kingdom of love, the kingdom of God.

It is the same Spirit that calls Philip to journey into the desert at high noon in order to help a government official understand what he is reading. Starting with where he is, Philip explains to the man that Isaiah was talking about Jesus and then explains who Jesus is to the man. The man then asks to be baptized. And Philip probably was questioning what God was doing, for why would this Gentile wish to become a Jew, it was impossible. But Philip followed God’s lead and baptized the man who went away rejoicing. Philip’s world was turned upside down, but there was no stopping God as the Spirit led him off to preach the good news elsewhere. It was this same Spirit that led Philip to the man and also led this man to Christ. It was the Spirit, the Advocate who helped the man understand the Bible and it was the Spirit that empowered Philip to boldly proclaim the Gospel to this obviously important official.

Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God dwelling with us. The Holy Spirit is God showing us how to live like Jesus. The Spirit of God helps us to understand the Bible. The Spirit gives us the mind of Christ. The Spirit is God urging us to pray, to spend time in communion with Christ and the Father through the Spirit. The Spirit is God making us new, making us holy. The Spirit of God is what unites us together and forms us into the Body of Christ. The Spirit leads us in worship and out into the world in love. The Spirit of God is invisible, never pointing to him or herself, but rather always giving the glory to the Father or the Son. But despite the Spirit’s invisibility, the Spirit is visible in all that God touches. Just as love itself can’t be seen in and of itself, so too with the Spirit. But this Spirit is seen in the lives of God’s people as they love and care for each other and for God’s creation. The Spirit is felt in this room with the untold prayers of hundreds of Christians. The Spirit makes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ as God feeds us and invites us into a deeper communion, a deeper relationship with Jesus. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us, the gift of God in us and all we need to do is receive this personal love of God and share it with others. As long as we abide in this love, as long as we are present to God, God is present with us, calling us to step out of our fears, our concerns and to care for others. In the giving away of this love, we receive it. If we love Jesus we have the Spirit of God with us and now the same Spirit calls us to share it with others in Jesus’ name. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Psalm 23; John 10:11-18

Christ is the sure FoundationAlmighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen [BCP, 261].

I want to begin with a citation from Wikipedia on General Motors:

At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation “because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa”. Later this statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world – only Soviet state industries employed more people.

It’s hard to fathom how much has changed in the last fifty years, how much has changed in the last fifty weeks. The Soviet Union is no more. Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Citicorp, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, banks and brokers that were the symbols of American finance, gone or close to it. Chrysler in bankruptcy and GM close to it.

When I was growing up, a set of encyclopedias was a solid investment in the future, whether World Book or the Britannica, they were symbols of the importance of knowledge and education. Today they are dinosaurs destined for destruction and extinction thanks to the World Wide Web and Wikipedia. The Internet even threatens the longevity of physical books themselves as our attention span becomes shorter and shorter. Everything that once seemed solid now is in flux. Knowledge is ethereal, electrons in the air.

We live in trying economic times. Many of us have seen investments diminish and even vanish. Some of us have lost jobs, others have had hours cut. Retirement seems less and less likely for others. A world that once felt solid and sure, feels insubstantial and uncertain. Anxiety pervades the culture and we long for a solid, sure foundation, a place to stand. And what once seemed less solid like faith and relationships are now proving to be the foundation that we need to live day to day.

It’s hard for us to admit our financial difficulties or fears. And yet ultimately they don’t define who we are. We are not Willy Loman in The Death of a Salesman, our respect comes from God not from our work. Our ultimate value is from God who made us, not in how we have made ourselves or who society says we are. Our value is from being children of God.

These tough economic times are teaching us how to be children of God and good stewards. As a society we can no longer afford to shop till we drop. We realize the importance of our families and friends, that all too often, they can be sacrificed in the pursuit of wealth. Time spent at home is as important if not more important than over time at work. All of us are worried about the future, but there is nothing that we can do today with worry that will change tomorrow. Instead we are learning to trust God and each other. Sharing in conversations with others are fears and worries and allowing God to take them in prayer. The truth is that so often when we worry about money or our jobs in the middle of the night, we are not alone; God is with us. This is what the Psalmist discovered, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” God is our Good Shepherd. Jesus knows us and he laid down his life for us. Jesus knows our fears and anxieties and he knows that ultimately our only hope is in God. When we discover the truth of God’s love and care for us, we can face our difficulties, even our economic ones, with a sense of peace and purpose. We have peace because God abides with us. God is with us. God is for us. The truth is that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!

The Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4;

1 John 3:1-7 & Luke 24:36-48

God’s Hospitality

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen [BCP, 833].

In a Streetcar named Desire, Blanche Dubois perfectly sums up the theology of Luke’s Gospel when she says, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”  Luke’s Gospel is all about welcoming strangers and sharing hospitality. He is the one that tells both the story of the Good Samaritan, the despised outsider who cares for the wounded person and the story of the generous welcome home provided by the father of the Prodigal Son. On the first Easter evening, two disciples walking to Emmaus open their home to a stranger and discover Christ himself in the breaking of the bread. Jesus vanishes and the two race back to Jerusalem to tell the others and as they tell them, Jesus again appears and says, “Peace be with you.”  He invites them to touch him to see that he isn’t a ghost. He shows them his hands and feet wounded by the nails of the cross. And then he asks them if they have anything to eat.  Apparently, the disciples were at table when Jesus appears. Now his eating raises all sorts of interesting theological questions. Was Jesus hungry? Does Jesus need to eat in heaven? Most commentators point out that Jesus’ eating was only to emphasize the fact that he has a physical body. He is not a spirit or ghost. But I think Luke mentions the eating as part of his overall theme of hospitality. Like at Emmaus, Jesus is at once both a guest and the host. He receives the hospitality of the disciples, but then he begins to teach them about himself and shows them how to read the Bible from the perspective of the Resurrection. As witnesses to the Resurrection, the disciples, the Church, is given power to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the Name of Jesus.  Luke’s account of the first Easter evening is remarkably similar to John’s account that we heard last week.

Last week I stopped in the McDonald’s across the street for a cup of coffee. There was a man in there conducting a Bible study and I had this wonderful image of Jesus eating a Filet-o-Fish and teaching his disciples about himself.  What would Jesus teach us today about hospitality? I thought of the line in the Book of Hebrews: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” [13:2, NRSV]. When we practice or receive hospitality we are acting like Jesus himself. When he sent the 70 disciples out to preach he told them not to take any clothes or money but to depend upon the hospitality of the people that received them. Like Blanch Dubois, they literally had to depend upon the kindness of strangers. Like love, hospitality is close to the heart of our faith. In a way, it is love put into practice. Hospitality mirrors the divine love of God of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches us to empty ourselves as Jesus did and to make room for the other person in our lives. Hospitality teaches us to be good stewards. We recognize that all that we have is ultimately a gift from God and these gifts need to be shared.  This is what we failed to do in the Garden of Eden when we claimed the fruit of the garden for ourselves and failed to offer it back to God in thanksgiving.

Each week as we gather for Holy Eucharist we are rehearsing our life in the Kingdom of God. We bring our gifts of money, bread and wine and offer them back to God and then God unites us together by the Holy Spirit and through Jesus feeds us with this now holy food. Through baptism we have renounced our old way of living only for ourselves and committed ourselves to live for God and each other. In Holy Communion we practice this new life so that we are empowered to live life differently in the world. Holy Communion enacts both God’s hospitality to us and our hospitality back to God. We welcome Christ into our lives both here and in all that we do.

Through the Resurrection of Jesus, the world is changed. It is no longer under the dominion of sin and death. God has forgiven us and now empowers us to forgive others. We can practice hospitality because of God’s hospitality. Like Jesus at times we will receive the hospitality of others and so call them to a different way of life as they share of themselves with us. This is how the Church grew in the first centuries of our era. At other times we are called to open our lives to others, whether it’s by offering a place for others in our homes or through the gift of food in our sandwich ministries or at the Soup Kitchen. Ultimately we are all dependant upon the hospitality of strangers because we need the hospitality of God. As we experience this truth and practice it, there will be no more strangers in God’s kingdom, because we are all children of God. Through hospitality we live our Easter proclamation: Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!