Rector’s Address 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi3_RCL.html
“Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works…”
Today’s readings are filled with the power given to us to proclaim Christ’s Good News. “Do not be grieved, for the LORD is your strength.” “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” So let’s celebrate the richness and the mission given us! This is not a day to remember old sorrows, but to delight in one another and in God and in our calling.
One year ago we began a year of renewal we called “kindling.” Kindling sets sparks to try and start a fire. We took a chance on God and one another—on God, that God was not done with Saints Peter and Paul and could bring new life among us; on one another, that we could have new conversations and move from quiet despair to new faith and new hope.
And the fire was kindled! There is a new spirit among us, there is a new electricity and a renewed sense of Christ’s presence on Sundays and at other times. We have paid close attention to reviving vital elements of our common life like fellowship and hospitality, music and worship. This has not been without effort and cost. The bishop gave us some funds to begin renewal. We used part to fund the new hospitality coordinator’s position. The rest we use to fund the Rev. Karen Ward’s time as “missioner.” We added significant funds from our own reserves to Karen’s honorarium. The results of this investment are reflected in the long list of “what we did” in your report. I think it was money well-spent. Others of us worked hard to accomplish all that as well.
We have welcomed newcomers this past year that have brought joy and enthusiasm and new energy to us. Among these are Kathy Fitzgerald and Brian Fitzgerald, Aaron and Anna-Lisa Miller, Aaron Kelly and Amber Stewart, Stephanya Portucalian, Brian and Kelly and Abigail and Luke Petersen, and Greg Eicher. We have welcomed a new Music Minister, Mak Kastelic, who has re-energized interest and engagement with our music and who has already helped us deepen and broaden it.
Growth is hard and real growth means change. A few long-term members have chosen to leave us in the last couple of years. I grieve for that, but I have learned that when new life emerges not everyone chooses to participate. I pray them peace and I thank them for all they have shared of themselves. We are still searching for new ways to carry out traditional leadership roles like Vestry and Treasurer while keeping things simple so that new energy can grow unimpeded. We need, by the way, to release faithful Alice from her long and wonderful tenure as Treasurer and welcome ways and energy to do that. Perennial issues like finances still follow us. But a good friend of mine asked me, “How are things going?” and hearing my response, he smiled and said, “So things are going great! You just have budget problems.”
The Spanish-speaking Misa community does nothing but grow, and we welcomed a Vestry member from that congregation. There is a sense of maturing at the Misa as they go about ordering their life. In two weeks some of the members are offering a tamale fund-raiser in order to help support the church.
These areas of growth in our shared life empower us to do what the Bible and today’s Collect ask us to do. We are not here for ourselves alone. We are here for the larger community and world. A new conversation has opened about outreach to the poor as well as “in-reach” to our own members especially the homebound. We organized ourselves to better welcome and care for the homeless and mentally ill who join us on Sundays. Meanwhile, we are taking responsibility to care for our own, especially our elderly.
Someone recently asked me, “What’s your plan?”
Well, my “plan” has been to stay open to the Spirit. This past year has held many surprises and we needed to be ready to trim our sails. But this is what I have heard and seen God doing among us, and so this is my “plan”:
We will keep exploring what “renewal” means for us. We learned this past year that no one has much energy for speaking abstractly about “renewal”, but a lot of energy came from doing concrete things. We’ll keep doing things that we feel are Spirit-led and we will reflect on the results. We will also stop doing things that do not involve proclaiming the Gospel or where energy is not present. The bishop told us recently, “Do less, but go deeper.”
We will follow through with our mission goal of re-establishing a Children’s Formation program, open to using our resources to hire a Children and youth Ministry Coordinator.*
We will deepen our involvement with the life and concerns of Montavilla. Contacts with the neighborhood and engaging common concerns puts flesh and bones on the Gospel’s call to love our neighbors.
We will deepen our knowledge and experience of Anglo-Catholic spirituality through learning a new way to talk about liturgy together. We shall begin doing this during Lent. The Celtic voice will be more active in worship as it is today, as the Celtic inspiration has attracted some fine new membership since we began exploring it. We will also choose carefully and plan carefully for the times when the two language groups among us meet for common worship.
We will develop music as outreach and hospitality. On April 20 we are hosting a concert of the Portland Chamber Group, which we will offer as a gift to our neighbors and as a way to raise money for outreach. This is a start to opening our lives and our building to sharing in music with the larger neighborhood.
We will put our building at the service of the Gospel and of our neighbors. Since the preschool’s closure we have an empty, quiet building most of the week. It is bad stewardship to spend resources maintaining buildings we only use for a few hours each week. They need to be busy. Partnerships with the neighborhood, or with service agencies, or as means to generate revenue, or all of the above needs to be accomplished by next Fall.
We will explore new ways of ministering and doing mission with several of the parishes of the East Side. The joint Shrove Tuesday will be only the beginning of seeking ways to develop a real shared life among our churches.
How are those for “plans”?
I am realistic about how parish priesthood is changing for those of us serving vibrant but financially challenged settings. I was a hospital chaplain even before I was an Episcopal priest, and I am returning to my older trade through an internship at Good Sam hospital. I am realistic about my need to supplement my household income with additional ministry outside the parish. Most of our neighbor churches are experiencing similar things. Life is nothing but change, and church is not where we take refuge from change. Church is where we entrust ourselves to Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in whom we can trust while we engage the inevitable “changes and chances of this mortal life” as a Collect says. Christ is in charge, and in the end we do well not by resisting what he is doing in the world and in our midst, but by surrendering in faith and trusting that Christ knows what he is about. After all, if the servants of Christ do not really trust in him, then who will?
*not included in submitted written text at Annual Meeting, but added verbally
archived musings and preachments
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
from inside out
2 Epiphany C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi2_RCL.html
God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.
This is no new notion. It was old when Augustine said it in the 5th century. It was old when Isaiah said it so poetically, “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married.” I wonder what those rough Hebrew peasants thought when they heard that God had married them and their land! Too Much Information? Or maybe not; maybe as they worked the land intimately, hands dirty, and watched the land blossom with crops, as they held newborn lambs wet and quivering in their hands, I think they understood the God who was intimately with them as they were with the land.
At the deepest core of our being, we find the living God.
Strangely enough, it can be easy for religious people to forget this. Maybe that is why so many people resort to that expression which has become a cliché, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” To folks who say that “religion” represents a set of dogmas and rules and a scary institution that demands obedience. A better response might be “I’m spiritual because I’m religious”, because worship and practice together with others allows me to be transformed by the living Christ who dwells at the core of our being.
The Christ-light of Epiphany does not shine on us from outside, like a spotlight showing up our human flaws and imperfections. The Christ-light shines from within us. To be in Christ is to be illumined from within. To follow Christ is to co-operate in our own illumination. Writer Frederica Matthews-Green says “one’s essential being is permeated and filled with the presence of God. It is something more than merely resembling Jesus, more than merely ‘following’. It is transformation.”
On Facebook a long conversation started with the question: what is Christian formation? How do we do it? The word awakens deep longing for many. I think that longing is rooted in a deep hunger—we wish illumination, we wish transformation, we want “being in Christ” to be a lived reality.
In our tradition, we need to show up to allow Christ to work. “Word and Sacraments” are named in the Collect. Basic formation is supposed to take place as we gather to hear the Word and break bread each Sunday. This Epiphany is a good time to re-name and re-claim that deep reality. This Sunday is a good day to ask ourselves, “What is it I am thirsting for?” If it is not illumination and transformation by Christ, then during these Sundays leading to Lent it may be good to reflect and pray on that.
An illumined life has great power.
One man who lived an illumined life was Martin Luther King. King was once asked how he was able to keep such a grueling schedule of meetings, conferences, writing his own speeches and sermons, and gathered with activists and protestors long into the night, all under great stress, absorbing criticism and hostility. King said, “Early each morning, one hour belongs to God. The rest of the day belongs to everyone else.” It is good to think of the simple Christian pastor at prayer at dawn, probably with his Bible in his hands, then standing up with a sigh and going about a difficult life that changed our world. That is an illumined life.
And it is our life. John tells us so with signs and symbols today. Those stone jars at John’s wedding party held only water. But look what they held when Jesus showed up and when people just did what Jesus told them. Wine, wine, rich and good, better than an Oregon Pinot Noir, poured out for people who thought they were already full.
What about the old stone jars and plain water of our own hearts?
Watch what Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament can do. And when our lives are filled with Christ’s new wine, see who will come and drink, see how the thirsty will gather. See how our illumined lives will be a gift to the world.
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi2_RCL.html
God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.
This is no new notion. It was old when Augustine said it in the 5th century. It was old when Isaiah said it so poetically, “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married.” I wonder what those rough Hebrew peasants thought when they heard that God had married them and their land! Too Much Information? Or maybe not; maybe as they worked the land intimately, hands dirty, and watched the land blossom with crops, as they held newborn lambs wet and quivering in their hands, I think they understood the God who was intimately with them as they were with the land.
At the deepest core of our being, we find the living God.
Strangely enough, it can be easy for religious people to forget this. Maybe that is why so many people resort to that expression which has become a cliché, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” To folks who say that “religion” represents a set of dogmas and rules and a scary institution that demands obedience. A better response might be “I’m spiritual because I’m religious”, because worship and practice together with others allows me to be transformed by the living Christ who dwells at the core of our being.
The Christ-light of Epiphany does not shine on us from outside, like a spotlight showing up our human flaws and imperfections. The Christ-light shines from within us. To be in Christ is to be illumined from within. To follow Christ is to co-operate in our own illumination. Writer Frederica Matthews-Green says “one’s essential being is permeated and filled with the presence of God. It is something more than merely resembling Jesus, more than merely ‘following’. It is transformation.”
On Facebook a long conversation started with the question: what is Christian formation? How do we do it? The word awakens deep longing for many. I think that longing is rooted in a deep hunger—we wish illumination, we wish transformation, we want “being in Christ” to be a lived reality.
In our tradition, we need to show up to allow Christ to work. “Word and Sacraments” are named in the Collect. Basic formation is supposed to take place as we gather to hear the Word and break bread each Sunday. This Epiphany is a good time to re-name and re-claim that deep reality. This Sunday is a good day to ask ourselves, “What is it I am thirsting for?” If it is not illumination and transformation by Christ, then during these Sundays leading to Lent it may be good to reflect and pray on that.
An illumined life has great power.
One man who lived an illumined life was Martin Luther King. King was once asked how he was able to keep such a grueling schedule of meetings, conferences, writing his own speeches and sermons, and gathered with activists and protestors long into the night, all under great stress, absorbing criticism and hostility. King said, “Early each morning, one hour belongs to God. The rest of the day belongs to everyone else.” It is good to think of the simple Christian pastor at prayer at dawn, probably with his Bible in his hands, then standing up with a sigh and going about a difficult life that changed our world. That is an illumined life.
And it is our life. John tells us so with signs and symbols today. Those stone jars at John’s wedding party held only water. But look what they held when Jesus showed up and when people just did what Jesus told them. Wine, wine, rich and good, better than an Oregon Pinot Noir, poured out for people who thought they were already full.
What about the old stone jars and plain water of our own hearts?
Watch what Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament can do. And when our lives are filled with Christ’s new wine, see who will come and drink, see how the thirsty will gather. See how our illumined lives will be a gift to the world.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Aha!
EPIPHANY 2013
TODAY, JANUARY 6TH, IS EPIPHANY DAY. THE EPIPHANY IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH THAT IF IT DOESN’T FALL ON SUNDAY, WE CELEBRATE IT ON THE SUNDAY CLOSEST TO JANUARY 6TH.. TODAY WE MOVE THE MAGI TO THE MANGER SO WE CAN REMEMBER THE IMORTANCE OF THIS FEAST.
EPIPHANY DAY, JANUARY 6TH, IS THE DAY AFTER THE 12TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS. THEREFORE, EPIPHANY ENDS THE CHRISTMAS SEASON. UNLIKE THE COMMERCIAL WORLD, THE CHURCH’S CHRISTMAS SEASON DOESN’T START ON HALLOWEEN AND END ON DECEMBER 25TH. IN THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH, EPIPHANY IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. FOR THAT BRANCH OF CHRISTENDOM, EPIPHANY IS WHEN THE INCARNATION IS CELEBRATED.
YES, EPIPHANY IS VERY IMPORTANT IN OUR LIFE. ANOTHER COMMONLY USED WORD FOR EPIPHANY IS MANIFESTATION. OTHER WORDS THAT COULD SUBSTITUTE FOR EPIPHANY ARE SIGN OR EXPRESSION. A MANIFESTATION OR SIGN OR EXPRESSION OF WHAT? IT IS NOT BECAUSE WE CELEBRATE WISE MEN ON CAMELS TODAY. WE HAVE ALL SORTS OF STORIES OF THE LITTLEST WISE MAN OR OTHER MAGI CO-TRAVELERS WHO NEVER MADE IT TO JESUS’ BED. THERE IS AN OPERA CALLED “JAMAL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS”. THIS IS ANOTHER STORY ABOUT THE MAGI. HOWEVER, THESE STORIES TEND TO LEAD US AWAY FROM THE REAL MESSAGE OF EPIPHANY. WHAT WE REMEMBER TODAY IS NOT THE WISE MEN COMING TO JESUS, BUT RATHER JESUS BEING KNOWN TO THE WHOLE WORLD.
SO WHETHER WE USE THE WORD EPIPHANY OR MANIFESTATION OR SIGN OR EXPRESSION DOESN’T MATTER, AS LONG AS WE UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LETTING THE WHOLE WORLD KNOW ABOUT THE COMING OF JESUS, THE MESSIAH.
TO ME THE EPIPHANY IS AN “AHA” MOMENT. YOU KNOW WHAT AN “AHA” MOMENT IS. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A MATH PROBLEM IS SOLVED. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A DIFFICULT BIT OF CARPENTRY IS ACCOMPLISHED. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A CONFUSING PIECE OF POETRY FINALLY MAKES SENSE. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN ALL THE PARTS OF A SEWING PROJECT COME TOGETHER AND LOOKS RIGHT. EPIPHANY IS AN “AHA” MOMENT FOR THOSE OF US WHO WERE NOT IN BETHLEHEM 2,000 YEARS AGO.
A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO, ON NEW YEARS DAY, ELLEN AND I WENT TO THE MOVIES TO SEE A FILM NAMED “MUNICH”. THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT THE NATION OF ISRAEL HUNTING DOWN AND KILLING THE PALESTINIANS WHO MURDERED THE ISRAELI OLYMPIC ATHELETES IN GERMANY IN THE 1970’S. AFTER AN EXTREME AMOUNT OF BLOODSHED AND GORE ON BOTH SIDES, THE ISRAELI MAN IN CHARGE OF THIS REVENGE OPERATION REALIZES NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED BY ALL THIS KILLING, AND HE QUITS. IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW YORK SCENE, WHERE HE MAKES THIS DECISION, YOU CAN SEE THE TWIN TOWERS. I BELIEVE THIS WAS AN AH HA! MOMENT FOR THIS MOVIE CHARACTER; IT CERTAINLY WAS FOR ME.
AT CAMP COAST CARE, MISSISSIPI, WHERE ELLY AND I SPENT A WEEK EIGHT YEARS AGO, THERE WERE FIVE PEOPLE FROM WESTCHESTER COUNTY NEW YORK WHO HAD RIDEN ALL THAT DISTANCE FROM NEW YORK STATE TO MISSISSIPPI, IN A PRIUS TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF MISSISSIPPI. ONE WAS A DEVOUT ATHEIST, ONE A UNITARIAN, ONE A QUAKER, ONE AN EPISCOPALIAN, AND I DON’T KNOW THE BELIEF OF THE FIFTH PERSON. THESE FIVE PEOPLE APARENTLY HAD AH HA! MOMENTS ABOUT A CALL TO HELP, AND IT WAS DENOMINATIONALLY INDEPENDENT. IT CERTAINLY WAS AN AHA! MOMENT FOR ME TO REALIZE THESE FIVE PEOPLE, WITH SUCH DIVERSE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS, COULD SQUEEZE INTO A PRIUS AND TRAVEL HUNDREDS OF MILES TO HELP VICTIMS, THEY DID NOT KNOW, RECOVER FROM A DISASTER. AH HA! MOMENTS OR EPIPHANIES CAN COME TO ANYONE AT ANY TIME. FOR SOME, AN AHA MOMENT IS ALSO A CALL TO MINISTRY.
BUT LET US LOOK AT THE DETAILS OF THE GOSPEL STORY. TODAY’S OH SO FAMILIAR STORY TALKS ABOUT WISE MEN COMING FROM THE EAST. EVEN THOUGH HYMNS AND OTHER STORIES TALK ABOUT THE THREE KINGS, THE BIBLE DOES NOT CALL THEM KINGS. THE BIBLE CALLS THEM WISE MEN, AND IN SOME TRANSLATIONS, WISE COMES OUT “MAGI”, OR “ASTROLOGERS”. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY STUDIED THE STARS AND PLANETS FOR SIGNS OF WHAT WAS TO COME. NOW THE NEXT SURPRISE; THE BIBLE DOESN’T SAY THERE ARE THREE WISE MEN. WE ASSUME THREE, BECAUSE THERE ARE THREE GIFTS: GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH.
OUR BIBLE PASSAGE TODAY SAYS THAT AFTER THE WISE MEN TALKED TO KING HEROD, THEY CONTINUED TO FOLLOW THE STAR UNTIL IT STOPPED MOVING, AND IT STOPPED OVER THE PLACE WHERE JESUS LIVED. THE BIBLE THEN SAYS THEY WENT INTO THE HOUSE AND SAW THE BABE JESUS AND HIS MOTHER, MARY. HEROD TOLD THE WISE MEN TO TELL HIM WHERE THE BABY WAS, BUT THEY WERE WARNED IN A DREAM NOT TO DISCLOSE THE BABY’S LOCATION TO THAT EVIL HEROD. I THINK THE AH HA! MOMENT CAME TO OUR WISE MEN, NOT WHEN THEY FIRST FOUND THE BABE, BUT WHEN THE ANGEL WARNED THEM NOT TO TELL HEROD WHERE THEY FOUND HIM.
WHEN THE WISE DIDN’T RETURN TO HEROD, HE ASKED HIS COURT WISE MEN WHERE SCRIPTURE SAID THE MESSIAH WOULD BE BORN, AND HE DECREED THAT ALL MALE CHILDREN 2 YEARS OLD AND YOUNGER WERE TO BE KILLED WHERE THE COURT FLUNKIES TOLD HEROD THE MESSIAH WOULD BE BORN. THIS SUGGESTS THAT UP TO 2 YEARS COULD HAVE ELAPSED BETWEEN JESUS BIRTH AND THE COMING OF THE WISE MEN.
SOME COMMENTATORS SAY THE WISE MEN CAME FROM BABYLON; SOME SAY PERSIA. SOME HAVE THEM COMING FROM THREE DIVERSE GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS, ASIA, AFRICA, AND ARABIA. THEREFORE THE SPECULATION IS THAT THEY ALSO WERE ETHNICALLY DIVERSE; PERHAPS CHINESE, BLACK AFRICAN, AND ARAB.
OTHERS EXPLAIN THE HEAVENLY BODY THEY WERE CHASING AS STARS, OR COMETS, OR PLANETS. THE COMMENTATORS THAT HAVE THESE OPINIONS ABOUT WHAT THE WISE MEN WERE FOLLOWING, HAVE RESEARCHED HISTORICAL ASTRONOMY AND FOUND EVENTS THAT HAPPENED 2,000 YEARS AGO THAT WOULD HAVE EXPLAINED A REALLY BRIGHT OBJECT IN THE NIGHT SKY. ALL THESE EXPLANATIONS AND COMMENTARIES ARE INTERESTING, BUT THEY TEND TO DISTRACT FROM THE MESSAGE MATTHEW WAS GIVING US.
THAT MESSAGE WAS THAT GOD WAS INTERVENING IN THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE TO HELP US PROTECT OURSELVES FROM OUR SELVES. REMEMBER POGO WHEN HE SAID THAT: “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US”? THAT INTERVENTION WAS NOT JUST FOR THE ISRAELITES; IT WAS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. THE MESSAGE WAS ALSO FOR UNITARIANS AND EPISCOPALIANS AND ATHEISTS AND QUAKERS.
THIS MESSAGE OF GOD’S AH HA! OR MANIFESTATION OR EPIPHANY OF SALVATION REACHING THE WHOLE WORLD IS NOT UNIQUE IN THIS READING FROM MATTHEW. THIS REACHING OUT TO THE ENTIRE WORLD IS TOLD IN THE STORY OF JONAH GOING TO NINEVAH. IT WAS TOLD WHEN THE PROPHET ELIJAH HEALED THE SYRIAN GENERAL. THE NEW TESTAMENT IS FULL OF STORIES OF JESUS HEALING AND REACHING OUT TO MANY WHO WERE NOT OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. PERHAPS THE CULMINATION OF THE COMMAND TO REACH OUT IS FOUND IN THE 28TH CHAPTER OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, WHEN JESUS SAYS TO HIS DISCIPLES: “GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
TODAY WE ARE CELEBRATING THE EPIPHANY. TODAY WE ARE REMEMBERING THAT GOD WANTED THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION TO BE GIVEN TO ALL PEOPLE. WE HEAR AND FULFILL THE GREAT COMMISSION OF MAKING DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. WE MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, NOT SO WE CAN HAVE MORE MEMBERS OF ST. PETER AND PAUL OR THE GREATOR CHRISTIAN CHURCH, BUT SO THAT ALL HUMANS MAY KNOW THE PEACE OF CHRIST, THE SHALOM OF CHRIST, SO ALL THE EARTH CAN LIVE IN THIS PAX OF CHRISTUS REX.
AMEN
Preached by Fr. John Nesbitt, Sunday January 6, 2013
TODAY, JANUARY 6TH, IS EPIPHANY DAY. THE EPIPHANY IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH THAT IF IT DOESN’T FALL ON SUNDAY, WE CELEBRATE IT ON THE SUNDAY CLOSEST TO JANUARY 6TH.. TODAY WE MOVE THE MAGI TO THE MANGER SO WE CAN REMEMBER THE IMORTANCE OF THIS FEAST.
EPIPHANY DAY, JANUARY 6TH, IS THE DAY AFTER THE 12TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS. THEREFORE, EPIPHANY ENDS THE CHRISTMAS SEASON. UNLIKE THE COMMERCIAL WORLD, THE CHURCH’S CHRISTMAS SEASON DOESN’T START ON HALLOWEEN AND END ON DECEMBER 25TH. IN THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH, EPIPHANY IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. FOR THAT BRANCH OF CHRISTENDOM, EPIPHANY IS WHEN THE INCARNATION IS CELEBRATED.
YES, EPIPHANY IS VERY IMPORTANT IN OUR LIFE. ANOTHER COMMONLY USED WORD FOR EPIPHANY IS MANIFESTATION. OTHER WORDS THAT COULD SUBSTITUTE FOR EPIPHANY ARE SIGN OR EXPRESSION. A MANIFESTATION OR SIGN OR EXPRESSION OF WHAT? IT IS NOT BECAUSE WE CELEBRATE WISE MEN ON CAMELS TODAY. WE HAVE ALL SORTS OF STORIES OF THE LITTLEST WISE MAN OR OTHER MAGI CO-TRAVELERS WHO NEVER MADE IT TO JESUS’ BED. THERE IS AN OPERA CALLED “JAMAL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS”. THIS IS ANOTHER STORY ABOUT THE MAGI. HOWEVER, THESE STORIES TEND TO LEAD US AWAY FROM THE REAL MESSAGE OF EPIPHANY. WHAT WE REMEMBER TODAY IS NOT THE WISE MEN COMING TO JESUS, BUT RATHER JESUS BEING KNOWN TO THE WHOLE WORLD.
SO WHETHER WE USE THE WORD EPIPHANY OR MANIFESTATION OR SIGN OR EXPRESSION DOESN’T MATTER, AS LONG AS WE UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LETTING THE WHOLE WORLD KNOW ABOUT THE COMING OF JESUS, THE MESSIAH.
TO ME THE EPIPHANY IS AN “AHA” MOMENT. YOU KNOW WHAT AN “AHA” MOMENT IS. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A MATH PROBLEM IS SOLVED. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A DIFFICULT BIT OF CARPENTRY IS ACCOMPLISHED. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN A CONFUSING PIECE OF POETRY FINALLY MAKES SENSE. AN “AHA” MOMENT IS WHEN ALL THE PARTS OF A SEWING PROJECT COME TOGETHER AND LOOKS RIGHT. EPIPHANY IS AN “AHA” MOMENT FOR THOSE OF US WHO WERE NOT IN BETHLEHEM 2,000 YEARS AGO.
A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO, ON NEW YEARS DAY, ELLEN AND I WENT TO THE MOVIES TO SEE A FILM NAMED “MUNICH”. THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT THE NATION OF ISRAEL HUNTING DOWN AND KILLING THE PALESTINIANS WHO MURDERED THE ISRAELI OLYMPIC ATHELETES IN GERMANY IN THE 1970’S. AFTER AN EXTREME AMOUNT OF BLOODSHED AND GORE ON BOTH SIDES, THE ISRAELI MAN IN CHARGE OF THIS REVENGE OPERATION REALIZES NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED BY ALL THIS KILLING, AND HE QUITS. IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW YORK SCENE, WHERE HE MAKES THIS DECISION, YOU CAN SEE THE TWIN TOWERS. I BELIEVE THIS WAS AN AH HA! MOMENT FOR THIS MOVIE CHARACTER; IT CERTAINLY WAS FOR ME.
AT CAMP COAST CARE, MISSISSIPI, WHERE ELLY AND I SPENT A WEEK EIGHT YEARS AGO, THERE WERE FIVE PEOPLE FROM WESTCHESTER COUNTY NEW YORK WHO HAD RIDEN ALL THAT DISTANCE FROM NEW YORK STATE TO MISSISSIPPI, IN A PRIUS TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF MISSISSIPPI. ONE WAS A DEVOUT ATHEIST, ONE A UNITARIAN, ONE A QUAKER, ONE AN EPISCOPALIAN, AND I DON’T KNOW THE BELIEF OF THE FIFTH PERSON. THESE FIVE PEOPLE APARENTLY HAD AH HA! MOMENTS ABOUT A CALL TO HELP, AND IT WAS DENOMINATIONALLY INDEPENDENT. IT CERTAINLY WAS AN AHA! MOMENT FOR ME TO REALIZE THESE FIVE PEOPLE, WITH SUCH DIVERSE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS, COULD SQUEEZE INTO A PRIUS AND TRAVEL HUNDREDS OF MILES TO HELP VICTIMS, THEY DID NOT KNOW, RECOVER FROM A DISASTER. AH HA! MOMENTS OR EPIPHANIES CAN COME TO ANYONE AT ANY TIME. FOR SOME, AN AHA MOMENT IS ALSO A CALL TO MINISTRY.
BUT LET US LOOK AT THE DETAILS OF THE GOSPEL STORY. TODAY’S OH SO FAMILIAR STORY TALKS ABOUT WISE MEN COMING FROM THE EAST. EVEN THOUGH HYMNS AND OTHER STORIES TALK ABOUT THE THREE KINGS, THE BIBLE DOES NOT CALL THEM KINGS. THE BIBLE CALLS THEM WISE MEN, AND IN SOME TRANSLATIONS, WISE COMES OUT “MAGI”, OR “ASTROLOGERS”. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY STUDIED THE STARS AND PLANETS FOR SIGNS OF WHAT WAS TO COME. NOW THE NEXT SURPRISE; THE BIBLE DOESN’T SAY THERE ARE THREE WISE MEN. WE ASSUME THREE, BECAUSE THERE ARE THREE GIFTS: GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH.
OUR BIBLE PASSAGE TODAY SAYS THAT AFTER THE WISE MEN TALKED TO KING HEROD, THEY CONTINUED TO FOLLOW THE STAR UNTIL IT STOPPED MOVING, AND IT STOPPED OVER THE PLACE WHERE JESUS LIVED. THE BIBLE THEN SAYS THEY WENT INTO THE HOUSE AND SAW THE BABE JESUS AND HIS MOTHER, MARY. HEROD TOLD THE WISE MEN TO TELL HIM WHERE THE BABY WAS, BUT THEY WERE WARNED IN A DREAM NOT TO DISCLOSE THE BABY’S LOCATION TO THAT EVIL HEROD. I THINK THE AH HA! MOMENT CAME TO OUR WISE MEN, NOT WHEN THEY FIRST FOUND THE BABE, BUT WHEN THE ANGEL WARNED THEM NOT TO TELL HEROD WHERE THEY FOUND HIM.
WHEN THE WISE DIDN’T RETURN TO HEROD, HE ASKED HIS COURT WISE MEN WHERE SCRIPTURE SAID THE MESSIAH WOULD BE BORN, AND HE DECREED THAT ALL MALE CHILDREN 2 YEARS OLD AND YOUNGER WERE TO BE KILLED WHERE THE COURT FLUNKIES TOLD HEROD THE MESSIAH WOULD BE BORN. THIS SUGGESTS THAT UP TO 2 YEARS COULD HAVE ELAPSED BETWEEN JESUS BIRTH AND THE COMING OF THE WISE MEN.
SOME COMMENTATORS SAY THE WISE MEN CAME FROM BABYLON; SOME SAY PERSIA. SOME HAVE THEM COMING FROM THREE DIVERSE GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS, ASIA, AFRICA, AND ARABIA. THEREFORE THE SPECULATION IS THAT THEY ALSO WERE ETHNICALLY DIVERSE; PERHAPS CHINESE, BLACK AFRICAN, AND ARAB.
OTHERS EXPLAIN THE HEAVENLY BODY THEY WERE CHASING AS STARS, OR COMETS, OR PLANETS. THE COMMENTATORS THAT HAVE THESE OPINIONS ABOUT WHAT THE WISE MEN WERE FOLLOWING, HAVE RESEARCHED HISTORICAL ASTRONOMY AND FOUND EVENTS THAT HAPPENED 2,000 YEARS AGO THAT WOULD HAVE EXPLAINED A REALLY BRIGHT OBJECT IN THE NIGHT SKY. ALL THESE EXPLANATIONS AND COMMENTARIES ARE INTERESTING, BUT THEY TEND TO DISTRACT FROM THE MESSAGE MATTHEW WAS GIVING US.
THAT MESSAGE WAS THAT GOD WAS INTERVENING IN THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE TO HELP US PROTECT OURSELVES FROM OUR SELVES. REMEMBER POGO WHEN HE SAID THAT: “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US”? THAT INTERVENTION WAS NOT JUST FOR THE ISRAELITES; IT WAS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. THE MESSAGE WAS ALSO FOR UNITARIANS AND EPISCOPALIANS AND ATHEISTS AND QUAKERS.
THIS MESSAGE OF GOD’S AH HA! OR MANIFESTATION OR EPIPHANY OF SALVATION REACHING THE WHOLE WORLD IS NOT UNIQUE IN THIS READING FROM MATTHEW. THIS REACHING OUT TO THE ENTIRE WORLD IS TOLD IN THE STORY OF JONAH GOING TO NINEVAH. IT WAS TOLD WHEN THE PROPHET ELIJAH HEALED THE SYRIAN GENERAL. THE NEW TESTAMENT IS FULL OF STORIES OF JESUS HEALING AND REACHING OUT TO MANY WHO WERE NOT OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. PERHAPS THE CULMINATION OF THE COMMAND TO REACH OUT IS FOUND IN THE 28TH CHAPTER OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, WHEN JESUS SAYS TO HIS DISCIPLES: “GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
TODAY WE ARE CELEBRATING THE EPIPHANY. TODAY WE ARE REMEMBERING THAT GOD WANTED THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION TO BE GIVEN TO ALL PEOPLE. WE HEAR AND FULFILL THE GREAT COMMISSION OF MAKING DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. WE MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, NOT SO WE CAN HAVE MORE MEMBERS OF ST. PETER AND PAUL OR THE GREATOR CHRISTIAN CHURCH, BUT SO THAT ALL HUMANS MAY KNOW THE PEACE OF CHRIST, THE SHALOM OF CHRIST, SO ALL THE EARTH CAN LIVE IN THIS PAX OF CHRISTUS REX.
AMEN
Preached by Fr. John Nesbitt, Sunday January 6, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Water
Baptism of the Lord 2013
Water changes everything.
We know that here in the Northwest. The rains of Fall bring lots of changes to our roof if it is not watertight. The water falling shows us rapidly whether or not we have cleaned our gutters anytime lately. The earth receives the water to make the passionate green growth that we take for granted until we fly to the Midwest and see how brown everything is. The rain can also overwhelm the earth and turn it to brown goo, even making nice big houses in the West Hills slide down into gullies.
Water is the strongest force on this planet. Each great storm, like the vast hurricane on the East Coast, demonstrates its power. We need water to live day to day. We love water when it is gentle and kindly, poetic streams making music on the stones, the surf sighing and calming our souls as we walk on the beach. We fear water when leaky roofs or surging seas threaten our fragile houses and our very lives.
Water changes everything.
Today God changes everything with water.
We have waited for God’s promised One through Advent. We have rejoiced in the mystery and wonder of his birth. At Epiphany we are lost in wonder, love, and praise as the Christ-light shines forth in the world. And now, we fast-forward through a childhood and a youth and find a man by the side of a river. Jesus has come, as have so many, down to the river to pray, there to find that good old way as the old-timey song says. And here God changes everything, with water.
Water is death and life. Water is ending and beginning. “Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end.” As his wild cousin preached and as the river water closed over his head, what did Jesus think was ending, what old way of life? As he rose gasping in the Palestinian sunlight, what new life was he expecting, how did Jesus think his own life was beginning again?
The Bible doesn’t say. The Bible almost never gets into anyone’s head that way. I think that’s good. In that open space left because in the Bible we don’t hear anyone’s inner monologue, we are left to wonder and to ask “What is my place in this story? What does God through water do in my life?”
Today the heavens open and we are led to a space we have never seen before. And one word spoken, God says one word that changes everything, that rushes into Jesus and rushes into us like the waters of a flood. “Beloved”
It seems fragile, that word. But “beloved” changes everything. “Beloved” is the water-word, the word that overwhelms Jesus and will drive him first into the desert to understand what it means, and then will lead him out of the desert singing, the waters of Baptism dry on his skin but ever-flowing in his soul. That water-word “beloved” will continue to shape his life and make his life a wondrous, upsetting, astounding gift to the world, a life that will disturb the proud and comfortable but will give hope to the poor. That water-word “Beloved” will follow him through his ministry and through betrayal and trial. One priest I knew said he believed that at the moment of his death on the cross, God the Father shouted that word “Beloved” in Jesus’ ears. In the tomb did he whisper the word “Beloved” as he raised Jesus from a cold stone slab? I wonder.
That very same water-word “Beloved” is spoken to us in Baptism. It is our word today. How has the Baptism water-word changed our lives?
Water can be very patient. A Desert Father said that the word of God is like water on a stone—very gentle and fragile, but with time a deep groove is worn. How has Baptism-water shaped our lives? As the waters say each day “Beloved” like a stream laughing over stones, how have we been shaped, changed, and empowered? How do we wish to be? How do we long to open our arms and heart to God’s Baptism-rush of water, to God’s Baptism-word “Beloved”, and be shaped, changed, and transformed?
God is patient, and Baptism-water is patient. But today is a good day to break down a levee, open a flood-gate, or maybe just crack the water-tap a little and let God’s water work. As people called, as a church-community, today we let Baptism-water do its work. In a brief moment we felt the waters on our skin. Invisibly, powerfully, the waters still flow. They laugh and say “Beloved”, and shape us to be the Beloved of God, to be the Beloved community, to be a God-shaped presence in a dry and parched world.
Today water changes everything.
Water changes everything.
We know that here in the Northwest. The rains of Fall bring lots of changes to our roof if it is not watertight. The water falling shows us rapidly whether or not we have cleaned our gutters anytime lately. The earth receives the water to make the passionate green growth that we take for granted until we fly to the Midwest and see how brown everything is. The rain can also overwhelm the earth and turn it to brown goo, even making nice big houses in the West Hills slide down into gullies.
Water is the strongest force on this planet. Each great storm, like the vast hurricane on the East Coast, demonstrates its power. We need water to live day to day. We love water when it is gentle and kindly, poetic streams making music on the stones, the surf sighing and calming our souls as we walk on the beach. We fear water when leaky roofs or surging seas threaten our fragile houses and our very lives.
Water changes everything.
Today God changes everything with water.
We have waited for God’s promised One through Advent. We have rejoiced in the mystery and wonder of his birth. At Epiphany we are lost in wonder, love, and praise as the Christ-light shines forth in the world. And now, we fast-forward through a childhood and a youth and find a man by the side of a river. Jesus has come, as have so many, down to the river to pray, there to find that good old way as the old-timey song says. And here God changes everything, with water.
Water is death and life. Water is ending and beginning. “Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end.” As his wild cousin preached and as the river water closed over his head, what did Jesus think was ending, what old way of life? As he rose gasping in the Palestinian sunlight, what new life was he expecting, how did Jesus think his own life was beginning again?
The Bible doesn’t say. The Bible almost never gets into anyone’s head that way. I think that’s good. In that open space left because in the Bible we don’t hear anyone’s inner monologue, we are left to wonder and to ask “What is my place in this story? What does God through water do in my life?”
Today the heavens open and we are led to a space we have never seen before. And one word spoken, God says one word that changes everything, that rushes into Jesus and rushes into us like the waters of a flood. “Beloved”
It seems fragile, that word. But “beloved” changes everything. “Beloved” is the water-word, the word that overwhelms Jesus and will drive him first into the desert to understand what it means, and then will lead him out of the desert singing, the waters of Baptism dry on his skin but ever-flowing in his soul. That water-word “beloved” will continue to shape his life and make his life a wondrous, upsetting, astounding gift to the world, a life that will disturb the proud and comfortable but will give hope to the poor. That water-word “Beloved” will follow him through his ministry and through betrayal and trial. One priest I knew said he believed that at the moment of his death on the cross, God the Father shouted that word “Beloved” in Jesus’ ears. In the tomb did he whisper the word “Beloved” as he raised Jesus from a cold stone slab? I wonder.
That very same water-word “Beloved” is spoken to us in Baptism. It is our word today. How has the Baptism water-word changed our lives?
Water can be very patient. A Desert Father said that the word of God is like water on a stone—very gentle and fragile, but with time a deep groove is worn. How has Baptism-water shaped our lives? As the waters say each day “Beloved” like a stream laughing over stones, how have we been shaped, changed, and empowered? How do we wish to be? How do we long to open our arms and heart to God’s Baptism-rush of water, to God’s Baptism-word “Beloved”, and be shaped, changed, and transformed?
God is patient, and Baptism-water is patient. But today is a good day to break down a levee, open a flood-gate, or maybe just crack the water-tap a little and let God’s water work. As people called, as a church-community, today we let Baptism-water do its work. In a brief moment we felt the waters on our skin. Invisibly, powerfully, the waters still flow. They laugh and say “Beloved”, and shape us to be the Beloved of God, to be the Beloved community, to be a God-shaped presence in a dry and parched world.
Today water changes everything.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Drawn by light
The Epiphany 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Epiphany/Epiph_RCL.html
“Arise, shine, for your light has come.”
Today is the day we raise our eyes and let them be dazzled by the Christ-light. Today is the day we shake the dust from our shoes. Today is the day that we look around us, to the right and to the left, and realize that we are all pilgrims, all called, all led by the amazing, awesome Light shining from the ever-new face of Christ.
Draw strength and renewed wonder from fellow-pilgrims. That’s how the story is told today. In the ancient land of promise long ago, weary people slept and rose and lived their careful, fearful lives under the gaze of Rome’s soldiers and a brutal king. So many promises made by God, so long the wait to see them fulfilled. When would the Reign of God arrive? When would the faithful and the poor see their freedom?
And then, the unexpected: strange wanderers from the East, not the official people, not the rabbis, not the scholars from the Temple, not the High Priest. Strangers, outsiders, speakers of another language, suspicious people, magicians, astrologers, New Agers... Tradition calls them kings and counts them as three, but the Gospel makes it clear that these pilgrims were not the “usual suspects”, not expected, not even invited into the weary watchful quiet of Palestine.
They told a tale of their own wonder. Watching the stars, casting their horoscopes, they saw a star they did not expect. They could have catalogued the star, made some predictions about how the star foretold the success of their own king in some war or some new marriage for the Prince. But the wise scholars chose a different way.
They chose to admit they were amazed. They chose to lift their feet from their comfortable elegant cities and their predictable jobs making star-charts for the wealthy. They chose to be pilgrims, wanderers in the desert of the Middle East and in the desert of their own weary hearts. They chose to believe that a new thing could happen in their predictable lives, that a new road could open at their feet. They chose a new and unknown way. Legends tell of how long and weary was their path, and of how many people they met along the way. The Gospel tells of the frightening meeting they had with a paranoid king, and I feel sure they knew how dangerous was their conversation with Herod, how slippery were the lying words, how they were lucky to walk away with their heads still on their shoulders. Herod wanting nothing to do with stars and the newness that God brought to birth. In fact, he was willing to kill to keep things the same.
But the journey did not end with Herod’s tense throne room. The light, the star, led on to a strange place, a forgotten and poor place, where the final step for pilgrim feet lay ready for the wanderers from the East. We imagine it was easy for the wise pilgrims to recognize that the newborn Jewish baby was the wondrous end of their road. Was it? Or was that moment in the stable one more invitation of faith—yes here, in the ordinary truth of birth, in the fresh face of this poor baby born homeless, that he was the Now and the True and the Promised and the Hope that every lonely, desperate moment of their hearts needed and cried out for.
And so, they allowed themselves to be lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Today is our day to join them. No matter if we have heard this tale of wonder over and over, no matter if we have seen countless tinsel stars held by generations of kids in robes in countless Epiphany pageants, today is the Now and the Wonder and the Glory. Today is our day to raise our eyes and join with humility the mystic pilgrims from the East. Today is our day to join with all pilgrims in our own midst, all those who still seek us out because their steps have led them here, all those who refresh our own weariness with the wonder in their eyes and in their hearts. The church of old chose this as one good day to celebrate Baptism, and called it “coming to the Light.” Sometime today let’s all reach up in silence and touch our own heads where the Baptismal waters once flowed, and renew our wonder and thanks that we too have been called to the stable, to the One who is Light and Hope and Life, to the One who is ever-new. He is ever-new, and our journey to him is ever-new.
Here is a prayer from another Baptismal pilgrim, the Celtic monk Brendan, as he set forth on his journey from the East, choosing the sea:
“Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home? Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea?
“Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver, without a horse, without fame, without honor? Shall I throw myself wholly upon You, without sword and shield, without food and drink, without a bed to lie on? Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?
“Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks? Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
“Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict? Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean? O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?
“O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?”
Shall we all walk our own pilgrim path today?
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Epiphany/Epiph_RCL.html
“Arise, shine, for your light has come.”
Today is the day we raise our eyes and let them be dazzled by the Christ-light. Today is the day we shake the dust from our shoes. Today is the day that we look around us, to the right and to the left, and realize that we are all pilgrims, all called, all led by the amazing, awesome Light shining from the ever-new face of Christ.
Draw strength and renewed wonder from fellow-pilgrims. That’s how the story is told today. In the ancient land of promise long ago, weary people slept and rose and lived their careful, fearful lives under the gaze of Rome’s soldiers and a brutal king. So many promises made by God, so long the wait to see them fulfilled. When would the Reign of God arrive? When would the faithful and the poor see their freedom?
And then, the unexpected: strange wanderers from the East, not the official people, not the rabbis, not the scholars from the Temple, not the High Priest. Strangers, outsiders, speakers of another language, suspicious people, magicians, astrologers, New Agers... Tradition calls them kings and counts them as three, but the Gospel makes it clear that these pilgrims were not the “usual suspects”, not expected, not even invited into the weary watchful quiet of Palestine.
They told a tale of their own wonder. Watching the stars, casting their horoscopes, they saw a star they did not expect. They could have catalogued the star, made some predictions about how the star foretold the success of their own king in some war or some new marriage for the Prince. But the wise scholars chose a different way.
They chose to admit they were amazed. They chose to lift their feet from their comfortable elegant cities and their predictable jobs making star-charts for the wealthy. They chose to be pilgrims, wanderers in the desert of the Middle East and in the desert of their own weary hearts. They chose to believe that a new thing could happen in their predictable lives, that a new road could open at their feet. They chose a new and unknown way. Legends tell of how long and weary was their path, and of how many people they met along the way. The Gospel tells of the frightening meeting they had with a paranoid king, and I feel sure they knew how dangerous was their conversation with Herod, how slippery were the lying words, how they were lucky to walk away with their heads still on their shoulders. Herod wanting nothing to do with stars and the newness that God brought to birth. In fact, he was willing to kill to keep things the same.
But the journey did not end with Herod’s tense throne room. The light, the star, led on to a strange place, a forgotten and poor place, where the final step for pilgrim feet lay ready for the wanderers from the East. We imagine it was easy for the wise pilgrims to recognize that the newborn Jewish baby was the wondrous end of their road. Was it? Or was that moment in the stable one more invitation of faith—yes here, in the ordinary truth of birth, in the fresh face of this poor baby born homeless, that he was the Now and the True and the Promised and the Hope that every lonely, desperate moment of their hearts needed and cried out for.
And so, they allowed themselves to be lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Today is our day to join them. No matter if we have heard this tale of wonder over and over, no matter if we have seen countless tinsel stars held by generations of kids in robes in countless Epiphany pageants, today is the Now and the Wonder and the Glory. Today is our day to raise our eyes and join with humility the mystic pilgrims from the East. Today is our day to join with all pilgrims in our own midst, all those who still seek us out because their steps have led them here, all those who refresh our own weariness with the wonder in their eyes and in their hearts. The church of old chose this as one good day to celebrate Baptism, and called it “coming to the Light.” Sometime today let’s all reach up in silence and touch our own heads where the Baptismal waters once flowed, and renew our wonder and thanks that we too have been called to the stable, to the One who is Light and Hope and Life, to the One who is ever-new. He is ever-new, and our journey to him is ever-new.
Here is a prayer from another Baptismal pilgrim, the Celtic monk Brendan, as he set forth on his journey from the East, choosing the sea:
“Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home? Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea?
“Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver, without a horse, without fame, without honor? Shall I throw myself wholly upon You, without sword and shield, without food and drink, without a bed to lie on? Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?
“Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks? Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
“Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict? Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean? O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?
“O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?”
Shall we all walk our own pilgrim path today?
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
First Sunday After Christmas
(Guest preacher: Malcolm Heath)
The gospel today was the first
thing we tried to translate when I took Greek in college. We sat down, with very little of the language
under our belts other than a rough approximation of how we might pronounce the
words, and attempted to apprehend the meaning of this passage.
En arche – we sounded this out
En arche ain ho logos – In
beginning was the word
kai ho logos ain pros ton theon –
and the word was towards the God
This is heady stuff to read in the
original. We got the meaning, but not
necessarily the _meaning_. The
translator is a traitor, goes the old saying.
How else could it be? Take a
text, any text, in any language far removed from your own, in time, in space,
and attempt to figure out what it meant to the person who wrote it, and to those
who first heard it. What, indeed, would
an ad for post-Thanksgiving “doorbuster” deals mean to someone 1500 years from
now?
And this particular text, well this
particular text is among I think the very hardest to really understand, because
it deals with who Christ is, and was, and perhaps even, who He is to be.
We just celebrated the Incarnation,
Christmas, and we say that this is the time we celebrate a remarkable happening
– that God became human, manifest in flesh, and came into the world.
But, what does that mean? As it turns out, this has been a central
question for Christians for centuries.
And it’s an important question, even know, and I would say, a question
that will always be important to us.
It’s a question that’s fraught with complexity, and no small part of
danger, theology so thick and dense and difficult that it’s the life work of a
believer to attempt to apprehend it.
If we place too strong an emphasis
on the divinity of Christ, we may make him too much a God, and too little of a
man. God becomes human, but only in
appearances, not in reality. Clothed in
flesh, certainly, but not actually human.
This has all sorts of implications, doesn’t it? That he didn’t _really_ suffer on the Cross
(for how can God feel pain?) That he knew
all the answers, and never doubted himself, and thus, never cried out, never
wept, not really, and always knew exactly what to say.
If, on the other hand, we place too
much emphasis on Jesus as a man, we run the risk of making him merely a sage, a
wise man, a leader. Indeed, in the
Jewish conception of a messiah, that’s exactly what he was supposed to be – a
leader, a king, someone sent and inspired by God, but not God himself. And if we believe that Jesus was that sort of
messiah, then he failed. After his
death, the Romans still ruled over Jerusalem.
The temple still stood. No golden
age followed.
He must be both – both the God who
existed before anything else, in the beginning, but also the babe born of Mary
– the one who will come again, to judge the quick and the dead, but also the
man who cried out on the cross in pain and fear.
The god who healed the sick. The man who yelled at his mother. The God who walked on water and calmed the
storm. The man who overturned tables in
his Father’s house.
The man who was more than just a
man, but wasn’t any less than one. The
sort of man who could convince fishermen to follow him with a word or a glance
– and the sort of God who could conceive of a victory not over another God
King, like Ceasar, but over death and fear and sin.
I find it odd that we’re so quick
to think we understand the powers of a God.
That we can detail those qualities of the divine which we seem to easily
be able to summon up in our minds – overwhelming love, powerful justice, miracles
of healing, and vast creative energies.
And I also find it odd that we are so terribly slow to realize that the
power in this story comes not from the powers of a God, but the powers of a
human – a human who would stop to heal a leper, who would try to help the blind
see and the lame walk. It’s the God that
he is that did those things, but the human he was that thought to do them in
the first place. That thought that it
would be good to teach. To wander far
from family and place to try, in however small a way, to heal the world.
Jesus the Christ – who said his
father was God. And who said that we,
too, are children of the most high. And
who raged and cried and laughed and drank and ate, and eventually died. The secret here, my friends, is not that he
was God who was man, or that he was a man who was also God, but that by his
very life, he showed that the two are not that far apart – that there can be a
union of the divine and the human, with neither sacrificing what each is to
join with the other. God and human,
together, at long last.
And now, and still, and forever.
Amen.
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