5 Easter C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEaster5_RCL.html
When I was younger, if I were asked to name the miracles of the New Testament, I would have come up with a list like this:
The resurrection of Jesus
The raising of Lazarus
The multiplication of the loaves and fishes
The healing of lepers
Giving sight to the blind
There are more, of course. You could name more.
Now I am older. I have walked many streets. I have found there heartbreaking good as well as terrifying pain, loneliness, and rage. I have also walked the streets of my own heart, and there I have met the same loneliness, rage, and pain.
Ask me now to name the miracles of the New Testament, and I will come up with a different list:
The conversion of Saul, from a deadly religious zealot to a servant of Christ
The unity of the Christian assembly
The forgiveness of Jesus given from the cross
There are more, of course. You could name more. One is told to us today:
The inclusion of the Gentiles
This Sunday good old Peter, old flip-flop undecided Peter, tells us in fear and trembling why he is no longer a good predictable religious man like his momma taught him. This was not a safe or an easy journey. The early Jesus-movement was not only a Jewish movement, it was a Jewish movement very preoccupied with who was in and who was out. That is a very natural human instinct. In fact it is a natural function of religion per se. Scholars of religion in general say that the purpose of religion is to make sense of overwhelming chaotic reality, to mediate the enormous powers surrounding us. Most religions are instinctively conservative—they try to keep everything stitched together so things do not get too crazy. This is especially important when the times are dangerous or out-of-control. One piece of stitching things together is making it clear how one belongs to the faith-community, so we know who is in and who is out.
When communities are frightened or threatened, they get even stricter and more harsh about who is in and who is out. With the Temple destroyed and everyone scattered, the Judaism of the time was very threatened and very frightened. The Jesus-believers were simply among them, trying to stay together, trying to make sure they were still among those who were “in.”
Then, an unlikely miracle occurred to an unlikely man. Peter had a dream, a disgusting and disturbing dream, where he is told to eat snakes and jackals and buzzards and swine. Peter is even more grossed-out than we would be—it is not only nasty meat, but the Bible said it is unclean and God forbids it. Three times the heavenly picnic-cloth is held in front of Peter, and three times the voice scolds him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Then Peter wakes up, probably nauseated and confused, only to hear someone knocking at the door.
It’s Gentiles. Goyim. Outsiders. Pig-eaters. Statue-worshippers. Enemies. Peter still needs one more nudge from God, this time not in a dream—go with them, and make no distinction between them and you. Walk with them, speak with them, eat with them.
We have trouble today imagining how this threw Peter’s world upside-down. We have to try and imagine what his culture and assumptions were saying to him, what he was feeling—fear, disgust, confusion. Who was God, what was truth, how can I go against the literal meaning of the Bible, who will we be if we are with these people, if they are with us, if they are us? And even if I accept this, what if someone sees me with them? What will the rest of the believers say and do to me if I tell them how I have changed my mind and heart?
But there were two miracles that day. One was this transformation in Peter. The other was, when the other believers heard Peter stammering out in fear and trembling his unbelievable story, they paused in silence, then rejoiced saying "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life." God makes no distinction between the outsiders and us.
And this is how a strange little Jewish sect changed. The Jesus-movement would have remained a forgotten historical footnote for archaeologists, a half-hour show on The History Channel. Instead it became a community that grew and that lives today and that still remembers this strange, upsetting, healing dream. Good thing for us: looking around, I see no one, myself included, who had a Jewish mom. We're here because of Peter's dream.
The Christian community lives Peter’s dream over and over. When Celtic missionaries overcame their hatred of the invading Saxons and began to make monastic communities with them, Peter’s dream came alive. When Bartolome de Las Casas and other voices began to speak against slavery of both Africans and Native Americans, Peter’s dream came alive. When women gained voice and leadership in both church and culture, Peter’s dream came alive. When amidst fear of losing members and pledges we had a change of heart and mind over lesbian and gay and bisexual and transgendered folks, already our own members, Peter’s dream came alive. When this parish first reached out to Spanish-speaking neighbors and began to learn how to welcome them and form community with them, Peter’s dream came alive. When we look up on any given Sunday and see among us the stranger, the homeless, the one different, the one whom our instinct says is not-us, and God nudges us to reach out, to welcome, to acknowledge the Christ in them, then Peter’s dream comes alive.
We are most the church when we let God nudge us from comfort to the discomfort of welcoming the other—the stranger, the previously unclean according to our assumptions, the outsider, and learn how to walk and eat and live with them. Each time this happens, we move from being a sect, a private gathering, and become the Church all over again. This is how the Church first came alive. This is how the Church comes alive today.
archived musings and preachments
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
A place we do not know
Easter Vigil 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEasVigil_RCL.html
Most people I know are more familiar with Good Friday than Easter. I am too.
Good Friday is where our very human lives, just as they are, meet the pain and unfairness of the world. Good Friday is the tears at loss and death. Good Friday is the deep sigh we draw when, once again, humanity lives up to our darkest and most pessimistic expectations. Good Friday is when the doctor comes in the consultation room with our test results and closes the door before pulling a chair close to ours. Good Friday is our parents aging, the innocent suffering, the homeless poor going on being homeless and mentally ill and living right where they are.
We know Good Friday. We know what to do, we know how to manage unmanageable pain. We know our place.
Tonight we come to a place that we have not known before.
The women who came to the tomb knew who they were and what they have come to do. They have seen the violent death of their teacher and friend and, although they were heart-broken, they were probably not surprised. Like women in all poor places, those places now optimistically called “the developing world”, these women knew abuse, sorrow, and loss. In traditional cultures men die violently and children die young. In such cultures women absorb abuse and have their loved ones torn from them and it is they who have to bind up wounds, feed everyone who is left, and arrange the dead decently for burial. This they know.
They knew where they had left Jesus. They expected to find him right where they left him. Their only worry was “who will roll away the stone?”
From there on, things got interesting. And the women found that none of their reasons for coming to the tomb made any sense any more. It is strange how an utter and complete surprise, a surprise that reverses everything you thought you knew about your life and the lives of others and your world and your reality—how that is terrifying, even if the news really is good. Even animals in the woods will circle suspiciously around unexpected food, suspecting a trap.
An empty tomb. A missing Jesus. Young men who seems to know what is going on. “He is not here.”
I think anyone in their right mind would be confused, or afraid, or run away terrified.
And that is the experience of resurrection according to the Gospel. That shock, that amazement, that feeling of blundering through a doorway into a large and unexpected room filled with light.
No Easter is just another Easter. Each proclamation calls forth new shock, new surprise, new amazement and awe. And so now, what do we do? What is it to be Easter people?
Thomas Merton said, “The risen life is not easy…It is also a dying life.” We walked through Lent admitting once more that we need to learn to walk with the Master. This past week we walked with him to Jerusalem, to the lonely garden, to Calvary. And now, where do we go?
Easter faith is embodied in those word, “He is not here…He has gone before you.”
Merton thought that many Christians hold a faith not of the living and risen Christ but of the dead Christ, the object of a cult, treating Christ as a “holy thing, a theological relic.” We know where we left Jesus, said Merton, and our only anxiety is how to roll away the stone so we can get to where we last left him. We do the same when we make our religion and our customs and our ideas something to hold on to with a death-grip. This grip does not allow the Spirit to say new things to us, to lead us in new directions, to animate us to new mission, to open our minds to new insights even when those insights are startling and strange. We know how to rustle the dry bones of Ezekiel. We do not know what to do when Christ puts new flesh on those bones and fills them with life.
Easter-faith is the faith of a people on the move, a pilgrim people. An Easter person is committed to allowing Christ to set him or her free, to dissolve any chains holding us to oppression or sadness or despair, to lead us into new and surprising life. An Easter church is a community that asks “Where is Christ leading us now?” and dares to listen for Christ to answer. And once we hear the answer, then we get up and move. “He has gone before you…”
Tonight allow wonder and awe to break into sadness and gloom. Tonight allow the astounding news to dispel sadness and despair. Tonight allow the strangeness of Easter news and Easter hope and Easter joy to break open the closed places of our hearts. We do not need any more practice handling the expected sadness and struggle of our lives. We need our prison-houses broken into, our weary expectations shattered, our darkness dispelled. We need to have every gloom and shadow whirl away like dingy startled pigeons.
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEasVigil_RCL.html
Most people I know are more familiar with Good Friday than Easter. I am too.
Good Friday is where our very human lives, just as they are, meet the pain and unfairness of the world. Good Friday is the tears at loss and death. Good Friday is the deep sigh we draw when, once again, humanity lives up to our darkest and most pessimistic expectations. Good Friday is when the doctor comes in the consultation room with our test results and closes the door before pulling a chair close to ours. Good Friday is our parents aging, the innocent suffering, the homeless poor going on being homeless and mentally ill and living right where they are.
We know Good Friday. We know what to do, we know how to manage unmanageable pain. We know our place.
Tonight we come to a place that we have not known before.
The women who came to the tomb knew who they were and what they have come to do. They have seen the violent death of their teacher and friend and, although they were heart-broken, they were probably not surprised. Like women in all poor places, those places now optimistically called “the developing world”, these women knew abuse, sorrow, and loss. In traditional cultures men die violently and children die young. In such cultures women absorb abuse and have their loved ones torn from them and it is they who have to bind up wounds, feed everyone who is left, and arrange the dead decently for burial. This they know.
They knew where they had left Jesus. They expected to find him right where they left him. Their only worry was “who will roll away the stone?”
From there on, things got interesting. And the women found that none of their reasons for coming to the tomb made any sense any more. It is strange how an utter and complete surprise, a surprise that reverses everything you thought you knew about your life and the lives of others and your world and your reality—how that is terrifying, even if the news really is good. Even animals in the woods will circle suspiciously around unexpected food, suspecting a trap.
An empty tomb. A missing Jesus. Young men who seems to know what is going on. “He is not here.”
I think anyone in their right mind would be confused, or afraid, or run away terrified.
And that is the experience of resurrection according to the Gospel. That shock, that amazement, that feeling of blundering through a doorway into a large and unexpected room filled with light.
No Easter is just another Easter. Each proclamation calls forth new shock, new surprise, new amazement and awe. And so now, what do we do? What is it to be Easter people?
Thomas Merton said, “The risen life is not easy…It is also a dying life.” We walked through Lent admitting once more that we need to learn to walk with the Master. This past week we walked with him to Jerusalem, to the lonely garden, to Calvary. And now, where do we go?
Easter faith is embodied in those word, “He is not here…He has gone before you.”
Merton thought that many Christians hold a faith not of the living and risen Christ but of the dead Christ, the object of a cult, treating Christ as a “holy thing, a theological relic.” We know where we left Jesus, said Merton, and our only anxiety is how to roll away the stone so we can get to where we last left him. We do the same when we make our religion and our customs and our ideas something to hold on to with a death-grip. This grip does not allow the Spirit to say new things to us, to lead us in new directions, to animate us to new mission, to open our minds to new insights even when those insights are startling and strange. We know how to rustle the dry bones of Ezekiel. We do not know what to do when Christ puts new flesh on those bones and fills them with life.
Easter-faith is the faith of a people on the move, a pilgrim people. An Easter person is committed to allowing Christ to set him or her free, to dissolve any chains holding us to oppression or sadness or despair, to lead us into new and surprising life. An Easter church is a community that asks “Where is Christ leading us now?” and dares to listen for Christ to answer. And once we hear the answer, then we get up and move. “He has gone before you…”
Tonight allow wonder and awe to break into sadness and gloom. Tonight allow the astounding news to dispel sadness and despair. Tonight allow the strangeness of Easter news and Easter hope and Easter joy to break open the closed places of our hearts. We do not need any more practice handling the expected sadness and struggle of our lives. We need our prison-houses broken into, our weary expectations shattered, our darkness dispelled. We need to have every gloom and shadow whirl away like dingy startled pigeons.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Mad mercy
4 Advent C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Lent/CLent4_RCL.html
After a rainstorm and some flooding, a man walked along a riverbank to see the damage done. Rounding a bend in the river, he came upon an old man who had waded out chest-deep into the current. The old man was reaching out over and over to try and rescue a scorpion that was stranded on some snagged branches in the stream. Over and over the old man reached out his hand, and each time he did the half-drowned scorpion stung him. Watching this for a few moments, seeing the old man’s hand and arm turning blue from the venom, the man finally shouted, “Why do you keep trying? Leave that ungrateful insect alone!”
The old man turned and answered, “Don’t blame the scorpion. It is in its nature to sting. It is also in my nature to keep trying to save it.”
It is the mad nature of the merciful God that astounds us today.
We have heard today’s parable over and over. The story has many names. The most famous is “the prodigal son”, making the younger son, the party-boy, the center of the tale. He would love that. Others call it the parable of the loving father, whose parenting style is not exactly tough-love. Others call it the “resentful older son”, who often disappears in his younger brother’s shadow as, once again, the trouble child gets all the attention.
All these titles are possible. Here’s one more: the parable of the mad mercy of God.
All three of the characters are as helpless as the scorpion and the old man before their own natures. And all three are overwhelmed by the mad mercy of God.
One question to ask is, “Where am I in this story?”
Odds are that we have been the younger son at some moment in our lives. We have found ourselves far from home, or distanced from those who love us, or waking up in the middle of a mess that we ourselves have created. We “come to ourselves” as it were, come to terms with the mess we have made, and pluck up the courage to come back to where we hope we are still welcome. On the way, we rehearse the story we’ll tell anyone who will ask where we have been.
Or we have been the father, who might today be called co-dependent. We have been wounded and left behind, we have felt loss and grief and anger, but when we see the one or ones we still love, we are overwhelmed and we cast aside our resentment and our pain. Churches can be the father when we welcome someone back who has left us. We rush out, again and again, simply relieved that the one we love is still here and we can still be with them.
Or we have been the resentful older son. We have done the right thing as well as we could manage. We have shown up again and again. We have made countless meals, we have been there for partners and children and aged parents and siblings with whom we will never get along, we have dragged ourselves to work over and over on days when we wanted to be anywhere else. This is the son especially familiar to us who are faithful church-people: we’ve paid our pledges, we’ve shown up over and over, we’ve done the heavy lifting and kept things going year after year, only to see attention go to new people and new things. Where’s the justice, what’s my return?
All three characters are true to their natures. All three are caught up in the plot of this parable, which is the mad mercy of God.
The younger son does not even get to stammer out his excuses. He is caught up in the wild chaos of love beyond reason, love undeserved and unearned. I imagine him lying on his bed that night, wondering just what had happened and whether he could live with the abundant mercy he had been shown. What will life be like the morning after?
The father is left with the discomfort and the unresolvedness of his love poured out, the question of what happens the next day unanswered, and the irony that love shown one son kindles resentment in another.
The elder son is left with an array of questions and choices. Was his long faithfulness actually faithfulness to the real story, the story of the mad mercy of God? Did he ever really understand what kind of home in which he had lived all those years? Can he live with this new reality, or this new insight, that love is not earned, that his familiar home is a place of radical welcome and of care for the outcast, that quietly he too had found his own invisible pigpen built not of wasting money on wild parties but of his own assumptions about his father and his entitlement and of the limits of the mercy of love?
The plot of our own story is the mad mercy of God. This mercy is not a warm fuzzy feeling or mere personal assurance. To live the mad mercy of God is a daily discipline and a deliberate act of imagination. On this 4th Sunday in Lent, we are invited to recognize our world, as if for the first time, as the world of the God who is merciful beyond measure, whose nature is mercy. We are caught up in that mad mercy and asked how this will re-shape our lives, sharpen our sight, and change our church and our world.
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Lent/CLent4_RCL.html
After a rainstorm and some flooding, a man walked along a riverbank to see the damage done. Rounding a bend in the river, he came upon an old man who had waded out chest-deep into the current. The old man was reaching out over and over to try and rescue a scorpion that was stranded on some snagged branches in the stream. Over and over the old man reached out his hand, and each time he did the half-drowned scorpion stung him. Watching this for a few moments, seeing the old man’s hand and arm turning blue from the venom, the man finally shouted, “Why do you keep trying? Leave that ungrateful insect alone!”
The old man turned and answered, “Don’t blame the scorpion. It is in its nature to sting. It is also in my nature to keep trying to save it.”
It is the mad nature of the merciful God that astounds us today.
We have heard today’s parable over and over. The story has many names. The most famous is “the prodigal son”, making the younger son, the party-boy, the center of the tale. He would love that. Others call it the parable of the loving father, whose parenting style is not exactly tough-love. Others call it the “resentful older son”, who often disappears in his younger brother’s shadow as, once again, the trouble child gets all the attention.
All these titles are possible. Here’s one more: the parable of the mad mercy of God.
All three of the characters are as helpless as the scorpion and the old man before their own natures. And all three are overwhelmed by the mad mercy of God.
One question to ask is, “Where am I in this story?”
Odds are that we have been the younger son at some moment in our lives. We have found ourselves far from home, or distanced from those who love us, or waking up in the middle of a mess that we ourselves have created. We “come to ourselves” as it were, come to terms with the mess we have made, and pluck up the courage to come back to where we hope we are still welcome. On the way, we rehearse the story we’ll tell anyone who will ask where we have been.
Or we have been the father, who might today be called co-dependent. We have been wounded and left behind, we have felt loss and grief and anger, but when we see the one or ones we still love, we are overwhelmed and we cast aside our resentment and our pain. Churches can be the father when we welcome someone back who has left us. We rush out, again and again, simply relieved that the one we love is still here and we can still be with them.
Or we have been the resentful older son. We have done the right thing as well as we could manage. We have shown up again and again. We have made countless meals, we have been there for partners and children and aged parents and siblings with whom we will never get along, we have dragged ourselves to work over and over on days when we wanted to be anywhere else. This is the son especially familiar to us who are faithful church-people: we’ve paid our pledges, we’ve shown up over and over, we’ve done the heavy lifting and kept things going year after year, only to see attention go to new people and new things. Where’s the justice, what’s my return?
All three characters are true to their natures. All three are caught up in the plot of this parable, which is the mad mercy of God.
The younger son does not even get to stammer out his excuses. He is caught up in the wild chaos of love beyond reason, love undeserved and unearned. I imagine him lying on his bed that night, wondering just what had happened and whether he could live with the abundant mercy he had been shown. What will life be like the morning after?
The father is left with the discomfort and the unresolvedness of his love poured out, the question of what happens the next day unanswered, and the irony that love shown one son kindles resentment in another.
The elder son is left with an array of questions and choices. Was his long faithfulness actually faithfulness to the real story, the story of the mad mercy of God? Did he ever really understand what kind of home in which he had lived all those years? Can he live with this new reality, or this new insight, that love is not earned, that his familiar home is a place of radical welcome and of care for the outcast, that quietly he too had found his own invisible pigpen built not of wasting money on wild parties but of his own assumptions about his father and his entitlement and of the limits of the mercy of love?
The plot of our own story is the mad mercy of God. This mercy is not a warm fuzzy feeling or mere personal assurance. To live the mad mercy of God is a daily discipline and a deliberate act of imagination. On this 4th Sunday in Lent, we are invited to recognize our world, as if for the first time, as the world of the God who is merciful beyond measure, whose nature is mercy. We are caught up in that mad mercy and asked how this will re-shape our lives, sharpen our sight, and change our church and our world.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Just as in debt as my own kids
(I was honored to give this testimony before a State Subcommittee on "Tuition Equity" for under-documented youth. Good start to Lent--kn+)
I am Kurt Neilson, Episcopal priest and Rector or pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish on Portland’s East Side. For six years this coming October we have offered a Sunday Mass in Spanish, and that community has grown to nearly equal in size the English-speaking portion of our congregation. I wish to speak to you from these years of experience working for and with Latino congregants of widely varied immigration status.
An essential part of our work involves us with high-school aged young women preparing for their Quinceaneras, a popular celebration of “coming of age.” In addition to a church service usually followed by a dance, we meet with the young women and their families for “platicas” or conversations helping all involved to make this moment one of meaning and maturation.
You need to know how astounding these young women are. Some are standouts at their high schools, 4.0 students involved in community service and student government and sports. Some are average kids, decent-enough grades with parents who care enough to guide them and involve themselves in their kids’ lives. Most are somewhere in between, hard-working students who keep themselves on the straight road amidst many temptations with parents who work nights and work several jobs and who consider themselves lucky to have the kind of back-straining, foot-aching work that you may have done when you were just getting started but now do no more.
In the church service, these parents stand up shyly and say in Spanish how proud they are of their daughter, how their daughter gives light to their lives, and how they hope and pray that their daughter stays to their path with whatever good example they themselves have had the energy and presence of mind to set for her. The young woman promises the same, with the help of God.
All these young women hope and pray for is a chance to continue to study, to grow, so they too can work hard and care for their aging parents and encourage their brothers and sisters and have a career where they can serve. It is an old story really—is it sentimental to call this the “American dream”, the vision that hard work and basic values shape the lives of each new group of people in this nation of immigrants? In the end, these are Americans. Over and over, immigrants have prayed for and waited for and struggled for their chance to simply participate. Mine did, and the Irish of turn-of-the-century New York bore the marks of this struggle. Your ancestors did too, unless your blood is truly Native American.
Tuition equity is no handout. These young women and young men too only want to be as in debt to Sallie Mae as my kids are. They expect nothing free.
If we establish tuition equity, there are abundant reasons from the standpoint of justice or compassion or faith-tradition to do so. I say that, if for no other reason, let’s do this out of enlightened self-interest. The young women with whom I have worked are rich in gifts and ambition and a desire to serve. Today many of their parents are laborers. In the blink of an eye, they will be the obstetrician delivering your granddaughter’s baby. They will be the elementary school teacher helping that child learn to read. They will be the lawyer assisting in the execution of your estate. They will be the clergy administering Saints Peter and Paul when good ol’ Father Kurt is just a couple of stories that the old-timers tell. They will be seated here listening to testimony from others who also seek equality. Already they are all that and more in many places. They are strong, and they are here, and they are a gift. If we help them now, we can say that we have truly helped ourselves.
I am Kurt Neilson, Episcopal priest and Rector or pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish on Portland’s East Side. For six years this coming October we have offered a Sunday Mass in Spanish, and that community has grown to nearly equal in size the English-speaking portion of our congregation. I wish to speak to you from these years of experience working for and with Latino congregants of widely varied immigration status.
An essential part of our work involves us with high-school aged young women preparing for their Quinceaneras, a popular celebration of “coming of age.” In addition to a church service usually followed by a dance, we meet with the young women and their families for “platicas” or conversations helping all involved to make this moment one of meaning and maturation.
You need to know how astounding these young women are. Some are standouts at their high schools, 4.0 students involved in community service and student government and sports. Some are average kids, decent-enough grades with parents who care enough to guide them and involve themselves in their kids’ lives. Most are somewhere in between, hard-working students who keep themselves on the straight road amidst many temptations with parents who work nights and work several jobs and who consider themselves lucky to have the kind of back-straining, foot-aching work that you may have done when you were just getting started but now do no more.
In the church service, these parents stand up shyly and say in Spanish how proud they are of their daughter, how their daughter gives light to their lives, and how they hope and pray that their daughter stays to their path with whatever good example they themselves have had the energy and presence of mind to set for her. The young woman promises the same, with the help of God.
All these young women hope and pray for is a chance to continue to study, to grow, so they too can work hard and care for their aging parents and encourage their brothers and sisters and have a career where they can serve. It is an old story really—is it sentimental to call this the “American dream”, the vision that hard work and basic values shape the lives of each new group of people in this nation of immigrants? In the end, these are Americans. Over and over, immigrants have prayed for and waited for and struggled for their chance to simply participate. Mine did, and the Irish of turn-of-the-century New York bore the marks of this struggle. Your ancestors did too, unless your blood is truly Native American.
Tuition equity is no handout. These young women and young men too only want to be as in debt to Sallie Mae as my kids are. They expect nothing free.
If we establish tuition equity, there are abundant reasons from the standpoint of justice or compassion or faith-tradition to do so. I say that, if for no other reason, let’s do this out of enlightened self-interest. The young women with whom I have worked are rich in gifts and ambition and a desire to serve. Today many of their parents are laborers. In the blink of an eye, they will be the obstetrician delivering your granddaughter’s baby. They will be the elementary school teacher helping that child learn to read. They will be the lawyer assisting in the execution of your estate. They will be the clergy administering Saints Peter and Paul when good ol’ Father Kurt is just a couple of stories that the old-timers tell. They will be seated here listening to testimony from others who also seek equality. Already they are all that and more in many places. They are strong, and they are here, and they are a gift. If we help them now, we can say that we have truly helped ourselves.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Plan
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
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
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
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