7 Epiphany A 2014
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi7_RCL.html
“And it would have been enough…”
Our text from Leviticus proclaims a vision of generous justice to a people used to raiding and abusing and plundering one another’s goods. “I am the Lord” God thunders, loud enough to get them to take their hands off the hilts of their knives and off of one another’s throats. Don’t cheat, don’t abuse, don’t lie, don’t swindle. When you harvest, don’t pick the field clean. Leave what’s left behind and what’s left on the edges for the poor and the homeless. Don’t hate, don’t do blood-feuds, don’t do pay-back. What’s more—love your neighbor as yourself. It is the word of a God who chose to love a rough and ragged people, who called them to be more that desert bandits. It was radical justice and forbearance in a brutal age.
“And it would have been enough…”
Some say that proclaiming justice in a greedy age is foolish. Well, we’re about to become even bigger fools. Because Jesus takes this vision of God’s justice, a radical vision in its time to a new and frightening level, a level beyond justice.
What’s beyond justice? Costly love.
Do not resist the bad guy—give him another cheek to punch. Got your wallet snatched? Hand over your watch as well. Asked again for a dollar? Hand it over, and maybe add another. That’s what Jesus’ teaching looks like in today’s language.
And there’s more—“love your enemy.” And, “be perfect.” That word “perfection”—many of us were taught this saying as a source of shame, like our lives never measured up. But the word “perfection” here is related to “whole.” “Be whole, be complete.”
Complete what?
Complete fools, says anyone with sense. If justice is foolish, this kind of over-abundant love and mercy is lunacy.
But Paul says that we have only one foundation on which to build—the One and Complete Fool himself, God’s Fool, Jesus Christ.
A traditional Jewish chant on Passover goes something like this…
“If he had led us through the desert
and not led us to Mount Sinai—
it would have been enough
“If he had led us to Mount Sinai
and not given us the Torah--
it would have been enough
“If he had given us the Torah
and not led us to the Promised Land--
it would have been enough”
With the God of the Gospel, the generous and foolish God, it is never enough.
It is never enough to simply be tolerant. God goes beyond tolerance. It is not enough to simply be just. God goes beyond justice.
God goes to self-giving, self-sacrificing love. God makes God’s own self vulnerable and foolish. The Gospel really is a joke in most people’s eyes I think. Who can love that much, forgive that much, check out of the culture of greed and self-interest and payback that much?
So now, go do likewise.
As a church, there was a day when it would have been enough to be a nice church, kind, forbearing, courteous to the stranger. That is a good thing. But as we saw at Annual Meeting, we are called to be more.
We are called to be love. We are called to the grand foolishness of Jesus. We are called to be one, humble with one another, grateful, to make no peace with inequality or separation, to be one. To take a new road.
Perhaps it will be enough if we leave behind all our former assurance, our old securities, our long-held opinions, and walk out on the road with new companions in humility and vulnerability and peace. One congregation, two languages, a small and foolish gathering in a large and cynical and divided world, a racist world, a world that measures people by power and wealth and skin color and gender and preference and so many other things that are nonsense in God’s eyes.
We will see if it is enough. And perhaps we’ll find ourselves joined on the road by someone whom we did not expect. Perhaps we’ll find Jesus there, not the Jesus of gilded images or gold crowns. The foolish, vulnerable Jesus. The Jesus of the Gospel.
And this road, and this Jesus, will be enough.
archived musings and preachments
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
How big is your house?
EPIPHANY 5 2014
I TOOK AN ECONOMICS COURSE IN COLLEGE, AND LEARNED TWO MAIN THINGS. FIRST OF ALL, “ECONOMICS” MEANS MEASURING THE HOUSE. ECO IS GREEK FOR HOUSE, AND NOMICS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NUMBERS. THE SECOND IMPORTANT POINT I DISCOVERED IS THAT THE PURPOSE OF ECONOMICS IS TO ALLOCATE GUNS AND BUTTER. THIS MEANS DETERMINING HOW MUCH OF THE RESOURCES OF A COUNTRY, A STATE, A CITY, OR A FAMILY GOES TO BUTTER, FOOD, OR WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS, AND HOW MUCH GOES FOR SECURITY, POLICE, MILITARY OR FOOD INSPECTORS.
IN TODAY’S BIBLE PASSAGES, ISAIAH AND MATTHEW ALSO TALK ABOUT RESOURCE ALLOCATION, THOUGH NOT NECESSARILLY GUNS AND BUTTER. THE ALLOCATION THEY TALK ABOUT IS TIME, ENERGY, AND PASSION. THEY ARE SAYING THAT WE SHOULD SPEND OUR TIME, OUR ENERGY, AND OUR PASSION ON HEALING A BROKEN WORLD, NOT ON SELF AGRANDIZING.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM ISAIAH: “WHY DO WE FAST, BUT YOU DO NOT SEE? WHY HUMBLE OURSELVES, BUT YOU DO NOT NOTICE? LOOK, YOU SERVE YOUR OWN INTEREST ON YOUR FAST DAY, AND OPPRESS ALL YOUR WORKERS. LOOK, YOU FAST ONLY TO QUARREL AND TO FIGHT AND TO STRIKE WITH A WICKED FIST. SUCH FASTING AS YOU DO TODAY WILL NOT MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON HIGH.”
JESUS TOLD US THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT IS THIS: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT, AND THE SECOND IS LIKE IT; YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND PROPHETS.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT ABOUT EARNING POINTS TO GET INTO HEAVEN SOME DAY; THE GOSPEL IS ABOUT DOING WHAT WE CAN TO HEAL A HURTING WORLD RIGHT TODAY.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM MATTHEW: “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, BUT IF THE SALT HAS LOST ITS TASTE, HOW CAN ITS SALTINESS BE RESTORED?”, AND ALSO : “YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A CITY BUILT ON A HILL CANNOT BE HID. NO ONE AFTER LIGHTING A LAMP PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET, BUT ON THE LAMPSTAND, AND IT GIVES LIGHT FOR ALL IN THE HOUSE.”
THE VALUE OF SALT IS NOT IN AND OF ITSELF. THE VALUE OF SALT IS THAT IT IS ADDED TO OTHER FOOD TO PRESERVE IT OR TO IMPROVE ITS TASTE. THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS NOT SO THE LAMP CAN SEE OR BE SEEN, THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS SO THAT OTHERS MAY SEE. “WE (SHOULD) IMPACT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.” 1
WHEN OUR LECTIONARY STUDY GROUP LOOKED AT THIS PIECE OF ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, ONE OF OUR GROUP QUOTED JAMES SLEDGE. JAMES SLEDGE IS SOMEONE WHO WROTE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS PASSAGE AND HE SAID: “CHRISTIAN FAITH IN AMERICA TENDS TO BE A PRIVATE AND PERSONAL THING. FAITH IS WHAT WE BELIEVE, AND THAT CAN BE SAFELY TUCKED AWAY IN OUR BRAIN SOMEWHERE.---YOU CAN BE A FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN IF YOU GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND ABIDE BY SOCIETAL NORMS FOR MORALITY. SO, IN ESSENCE, IF PEOPLE DON’T CHECK THE CHURCH PARKING LOT ON SUNDAYS, NOTHING ABOUT YOUR FAITH WOULD DISTINGUISH YOU FROM ANYONE ELSE WHO FUNCTIONED AS A GOOD CITIZEN.” AND THIS REMINDS ME OF AN OLD SAYING THAT IF IT WERE ILLEGAL TO BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST’S GOSPEL WOULD ENOUGH EVIDENCE BE FOUND TO CONVICT US?
JAMES SLEDGE THEN WENT ON TO SAY: “IT’S WORTH NOTING THAT PROPHETS GENERALLY WERE NOT PERSECUTED FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED. THE PEOPLE WHO PERSECUTED THEM WERE FELLOW MEMBERS OF THEIR FAITH, FELLOW WORSHIPPERS OF YAHYEH. THEY WERE PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY INSISTED THAT BEING GOD’S PEOPLE DEMANDED THAT THEY LIVE DIFFERENTLY THEN THEY WERE DOING. THE PROPHETS INSISTED THAT THEY COULD NOT CLAIM TO BE GOD’S PEOPLE WHILE EXPLOITING THE POOR, WORRYING ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL FORTUNES MORE THAN GOD’S COMMANDS, AND SO ON.
AMEN
John Nesbitt+, Feb 9, 2014
I TOOK AN ECONOMICS COURSE IN COLLEGE, AND LEARNED TWO MAIN THINGS. FIRST OF ALL, “ECONOMICS” MEANS MEASURING THE HOUSE. ECO IS GREEK FOR HOUSE, AND NOMICS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NUMBERS. THE SECOND IMPORTANT POINT I DISCOVERED IS THAT THE PURPOSE OF ECONOMICS IS TO ALLOCATE GUNS AND BUTTER. THIS MEANS DETERMINING HOW MUCH OF THE RESOURCES OF A COUNTRY, A STATE, A CITY, OR A FAMILY GOES TO BUTTER, FOOD, OR WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS, AND HOW MUCH GOES FOR SECURITY, POLICE, MILITARY OR FOOD INSPECTORS.
IN TODAY’S BIBLE PASSAGES, ISAIAH AND MATTHEW ALSO TALK ABOUT RESOURCE ALLOCATION, THOUGH NOT NECESSARILLY GUNS AND BUTTER. THE ALLOCATION THEY TALK ABOUT IS TIME, ENERGY, AND PASSION. THEY ARE SAYING THAT WE SHOULD SPEND OUR TIME, OUR ENERGY, AND OUR PASSION ON HEALING A BROKEN WORLD, NOT ON SELF AGRANDIZING.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM ISAIAH: “WHY DO WE FAST, BUT YOU DO NOT SEE? WHY HUMBLE OURSELVES, BUT YOU DO NOT NOTICE? LOOK, YOU SERVE YOUR OWN INTEREST ON YOUR FAST DAY, AND OPPRESS ALL YOUR WORKERS. LOOK, YOU FAST ONLY TO QUARREL AND TO FIGHT AND TO STRIKE WITH A WICKED FIST. SUCH FASTING AS YOU DO TODAY WILL NOT MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON HIGH.”
JESUS TOLD US THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT IS THIS: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT, AND THE SECOND IS LIKE IT; YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND PROPHETS.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT ABOUT EARNING POINTS TO GET INTO HEAVEN SOME DAY; THE GOSPEL IS ABOUT DOING WHAT WE CAN TO HEAL A HURTING WORLD RIGHT TODAY.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM MATTHEW: “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, BUT IF THE SALT HAS LOST ITS TASTE, HOW CAN ITS SALTINESS BE RESTORED?”, AND ALSO : “YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A CITY BUILT ON A HILL CANNOT BE HID. NO ONE AFTER LIGHTING A LAMP PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET, BUT ON THE LAMPSTAND, AND IT GIVES LIGHT FOR ALL IN THE HOUSE.”
THE VALUE OF SALT IS NOT IN AND OF ITSELF. THE VALUE OF SALT IS THAT IT IS ADDED TO OTHER FOOD TO PRESERVE IT OR TO IMPROVE ITS TASTE. THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS NOT SO THE LAMP CAN SEE OR BE SEEN, THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS SO THAT OTHERS MAY SEE. “WE (SHOULD) IMPACT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.” 1
WHEN OUR LECTIONARY STUDY GROUP LOOKED AT THIS PIECE OF ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, ONE OF OUR GROUP QUOTED JAMES SLEDGE. JAMES SLEDGE IS SOMEONE WHO WROTE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS PASSAGE AND HE SAID: “CHRISTIAN FAITH IN AMERICA TENDS TO BE A PRIVATE AND PERSONAL THING. FAITH IS WHAT WE BELIEVE, AND THAT CAN BE SAFELY TUCKED AWAY IN OUR BRAIN SOMEWHERE.---YOU CAN BE A FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN IF YOU GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND ABIDE BY SOCIETAL NORMS FOR MORALITY. SO, IN ESSENCE, IF PEOPLE DON’T CHECK THE CHURCH PARKING LOT ON SUNDAYS, NOTHING ABOUT YOUR FAITH WOULD DISTINGUISH YOU FROM ANYONE ELSE WHO FUNCTIONED AS A GOOD CITIZEN.” AND THIS REMINDS ME OF AN OLD SAYING THAT IF IT WERE ILLEGAL TO BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST’S GOSPEL WOULD ENOUGH EVIDENCE BE FOUND TO CONVICT US?
JAMES SLEDGE THEN WENT ON TO SAY: “IT’S WORTH NOTING THAT PROPHETS GENERALLY WERE NOT PERSECUTED FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED. THE PEOPLE WHO PERSECUTED THEM WERE FELLOW MEMBERS OF THEIR FAITH, FELLOW WORSHIPPERS OF YAHYEH. THEY WERE PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY INSISTED THAT BEING GOD’S PEOPLE DEMANDED THAT THEY LIVE DIFFERENTLY THEN THEY WERE DOING. THE PROPHETS INSISTED THAT THEY COULD NOT CLAIM TO BE GOD’S PEOPLE WHILE EXPLOITING THE POOR, WORRYING ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL FORTUNES MORE THAN GOD’S COMMANDS, AND SO ON.
AMEN
John Nesbitt+, Feb 9, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Of headaches and fire
Brigid’s Day 2014
Isaiah 61: 1-3; Ps 138; 1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 6: 25-33
When we read Brigid legends, we find a lot of headaches.
One story tells of Brigid traveling to visit a family that had suffered tragic loss. All their children had died except two daughters, and these two were mute. Brigid took the two young women with her when she left. On the way, Brigid suffered a terrible headache. Then the horse pulling her chariot shied and pitched Brigid out. She hit her head on a rock and gave herself a bad gash. Strangely, Brigid’s headache vanished, and she told the two girls to bathe their necks with the water from the tiny stream by the road that had been mixed with Brigid’s blood. Immediately they began to speak. It’s a bizarre enough story to be true.
Brigid is a wounded healer in this tale. Headaches come up so frequently in her stories that I suspect she suffered from migraines. Brigid takes two young women with her, takes them to herself, voiceless and powerless. Brigid herself is wounded but shares her blood, her wound, with the two girls. The voiceless then begin to speak.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives…to give them the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
The prophet speaks from the standpoint of wounds and vulnerability. Not many chapters before, he sang of the Suffering Servant, the one who “by his wounds we are healed.” Here and in this old Brigid story, it is the wounded who take to themselves the wounded. It is through wounds and vulnerability, not through power and coercion, that the voiceless are given voice, that the powerless are set free.
Brigid’s Mantle, the traditional cloth laid out on the eve of Feb 1, is strangely enough said to cure headaches. Behind this sweet old custom lies a powerful Gospel mystery. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept one’s wounds and one’s need. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept the healing that the wounded share with us. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to believe that the poor and voiceless will have hope and voice. It’s strange that the Isaiah passage actually mentions a “mantle of praise.”
Some years ago we cast open our doors to Brigid. She’s been bringing her poor and wounded ever since
It was her fire and her passion that kindled our hearts to renew our meal program. Brigid vowed to “save every miserable person.” Misery is easy to come by on this street. Many of us have looked into misery’s eyes and given food to mouths often mute with their suffering. It is a hard, rich ministry, and as in all such ministries we get back more than we give.
And Brigid walked on the street outside casting her mantle around the women in the sex trade. Love and dedication were kindled in the hearts of those who began the Friday night ministry to this day.
This consciousness, this mad casting of Brigid’s Mantle, only deepens and grows. We have become a community that welcomes and reaches out. I think that is the single most important aspect of who we are.
Not many of us are wise, not many of us are powerful. Not many of us are famous in the world’s eyes. But God chooses a broken vessel like this church, and broken hearts like ours, to reach out to the poor and broken.
And how do we continue our life? That’s not clear. But this is what we’re told: “Do not worry about your life, or about your body…But strive first for the Kingdom of God.”
It is said of Brigid that her monastery was rich because she was always giving everything away.
To be the people of Brigid’s Mantle is to trust, to give, to reach out from the vulnerability of our own wounds. It is to know that when we do, headaches and all, the mad and generous Christ who loves his outrageous Brigid will reach out to us, through us, in us, to work rich and wonderful things, for us, through us, in us.
Isaiah 61: 1-3; Ps 138; 1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 6: 25-33
When we read Brigid legends, we find a lot of headaches.
One story tells of Brigid traveling to visit a family that had suffered tragic loss. All their children had died except two daughters, and these two were mute. Brigid took the two young women with her when she left. On the way, Brigid suffered a terrible headache. Then the horse pulling her chariot shied and pitched Brigid out. She hit her head on a rock and gave herself a bad gash. Strangely, Brigid’s headache vanished, and she told the two girls to bathe their necks with the water from the tiny stream by the road that had been mixed with Brigid’s blood. Immediately they began to speak. It’s a bizarre enough story to be true.
Brigid is a wounded healer in this tale. Headaches come up so frequently in her stories that I suspect she suffered from migraines. Brigid takes two young women with her, takes them to herself, voiceless and powerless. Brigid herself is wounded but shares her blood, her wound, with the two girls. The voiceless then begin to speak.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives…to give them the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
The prophet speaks from the standpoint of wounds and vulnerability. Not many chapters before, he sang of the Suffering Servant, the one who “by his wounds we are healed.” Here and in this old Brigid story, it is the wounded who take to themselves the wounded. It is through wounds and vulnerability, not through power and coercion, that the voiceless are given voice, that the powerless are set free.
Brigid’s Mantle, the traditional cloth laid out on the eve of Feb 1, is strangely enough said to cure headaches. Behind this sweet old custom lies a powerful Gospel mystery. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept one’s wounds and one’s need. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept the healing that the wounded share with us. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to believe that the poor and voiceless will have hope and voice. It’s strange that the Isaiah passage actually mentions a “mantle of praise.”
Some years ago we cast open our doors to Brigid. She’s been bringing her poor and wounded ever since
It was her fire and her passion that kindled our hearts to renew our meal program. Brigid vowed to “save every miserable person.” Misery is easy to come by on this street. Many of us have looked into misery’s eyes and given food to mouths often mute with their suffering. It is a hard, rich ministry, and as in all such ministries we get back more than we give.
And Brigid walked on the street outside casting her mantle around the women in the sex trade. Love and dedication were kindled in the hearts of those who began the Friday night ministry to this day.
This consciousness, this mad casting of Brigid’s Mantle, only deepens and grows. We have become a community that welcomes and reaches out. I think that is the single most important aspect of who we are.
Not many of us are wise, not many of us are powerful. Not many of us are famous in the world’s eyes. But God chooses a broken vessel like this church, and broken hearts like ours, to reach out to the poor and broken.
And how do we continue our life? That’s not clear. But this is what we’re told: “Do not worry about your life, or about your body…But strive first for the Kingdom of God.”
It is said of Brigid that her monastery was rich because she was always giving everything away.
To be the people of Brigid’s Mantle is to trust, to give, to reach out from the vulnerability of our own wounds. It is to know that when we do, headaches and all, the mad and generous Christ who loves his outrageous Brigid will reach out to us, through us, in us, to work rich and wonderful things, for us, through us, in us.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Fools
3 Epiphany A 2014
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi3_RCL.html
We are a very foolish congregation. I hope we stay that way.
We’re perched here on 82nd Avenue. Other churches have fled this street. We reach out to people who do not have deep pockets and big bank balances. We proclaim the love of God in the lives of people who have every reason to doubt that God loves them or that their lives mean anything to anyone. We come to be with one another, living, serving, celebrating, forgiving, getting back up when we fall.
We are a very foolish congregation. I hope we stay fools.
Paul tells us it is important to be foolish. If we’re foolish, we just might be living the message of the Cross: foolishness to some, the power of God for those who live it.
I think we’re ready to live like fools only after we’ve seen the darkness. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
I was a much younger man when I was hired at an Episcopal social service agency in Chicago. I soon learned that the heart of the agency was a recovery group that oversaw long-term residential treatment for addiction. Those who worked in the recovery house and those who supported it were all recovering from addiction.
It was those men and women who first taught me about grace, really taught me about grace. They told me stories about their personal hells, how they had looked into the depth of despair, gazed into the end of their own lives as a real possibility, just another doper, another dead drunk. At some moment, light shone. Perhaps it was the acceptance and friendship of a sponsor. Perhaps it was a stubborn stir in their own hearts that refused to surrender the shattered remnant of their lives to the garbage can. Those who shared their stories with me spoke of this humbly, as a gift. Everything that happened after this, the daily walk, one day at a time, sometimes one hour or one minute at a time, was pure gift, pure grace, pure light.
The tribes that the prophet speaks of today, Zebulon and Naphtali, were shattered and humiliated, seeming at the end of their story, living on the edge in a despised land. But it was there that light shone, a light not just for them but for us all. We’re reminded that it is among those who seem defeated, broken, ignored, on the edge, that light breaks forth.
And Jesus’ own ministry, and his first call of disciples, begins after the imprisonment of his cousin John. Every once in awhile the powers of the world demonstrate how foolish it is to resist them. Herod had shown that “resistance is futile” by jailing John. I do not think anyone believed that once John had gone to Herod’s dungeons that he would emerge alive. It was foolish to attract the attention of Herod, or the Romans, or the temple guard. Crosses stood along the main roads with the bodies of those who had, a foolish death for fools.
But here is where the light shown, the light of a new message of liberation and hope and the gathering of scattered people. It was here that the foolishness of the light and those who dare to trust the light began to drive the power of darkness before it. It still does.
It’s a foolish thing to dare to believe that light is stronger than darkness. It’s a foolish thing to believe that we are a graced congregation, gathered from whatever darkness and defeats have left their mark on our lives. It is that very foolish part of ourselves and our community that the divine spark can kindle into light. The Collect today says “proclaim to all people the good news of his salvation.” That’s not about convincing people of doctrines. That’s humbly sharing and showing that light has shown in the dark places of our lives and in our world. That’s showing how an insignificant-seeming life can be set ablaze by that mysterious spark that comes as a gift.
If we’re feeling foolish and at the end of our rope, maybe it’s then that the divine light can really do something with us!
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi3_RCL.html
We are a very foolish congregation. I hope we stay that way.
We’re perched here on 82nd Avenue. Other churches have fled this street. We reach out to people who do not have deep pockets and big bank balances. We proclaim the love of God in the lives of people who have every reason to doubt that God loves them or that their lives mean anything to anyone. We come to be with one another, living, serving, celebrating, forgiving, getting back up when we fall.
We are a very foolish congregation. I hope we stay fools.
Paul tells us it is important to be foolish. If we’re foolish, we just might be living the message of the Cross: foolishness to some, the power of God for those who live it.
I think we’re ready to live like fools only after we’ve seen the darkness. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
I was a much younger man when I was hired at an Episcopal social service agency in Chicago. I soon learned that the heart of the agency was a recovery group that oversaw long-term residential treatment for addiction. Those who worked in the recovery house and those who supported it were all recovering from addiction.
It was those men and women who first taught me about grace, really taught me about grace. They told me stories about their personal hells, how they had looked into the depth of despair, gazed into the end of their own lives as a real possibility, just another doper, another dead drunk. At some moment, light shone. Perhaps it was the acceptance and friendship of a sponsor. Perhaps it was a stubborn stir in their own hearts that refused to surrender the shattered remnant of their lives to the garbage can. Those who shared their stories with me spoke of this humbly, as a gift. Everything that happened after this, the daily walk, one day at a time, sometimes one hour or one minute at a time, was pure gift, pure grace, pure light.
The tribes that the prophet speaks of today, Zebulon and Naphtali, were shattered and humiliated, seeming at the end of their story, living on the edge in a despised land. But it was there that light shone, a light not just for them but for us all. We’re reminded that it is among those who seem defeated, broken, ignored, on the edge, that light breaks forth.
And Jesus’ own ministry, and his first call of disciples, begins after the imprisonment of his cousin John. Every once in awhile the powers of the world demonstrate how foolish it is to resist them. Herod had shown that “resistance is futile” by jailing John. I do not think anyone believed that once John had gone to Herod’s dungeons that he would emerge alive. It was foolish to attract the attention of Herod, or the Romans, or the temple guard. Crosses stood along the main roads with the bodies of those who had, a foolish death for fools.
But here is where the light shown, the light of a new message of liberation and hope and the gathering of scattered people. It was here that the foolishness of the light and those who dare to trust the light began to drive the power of darkness before it. It still does.
It’s a foolish thing to dare to believe that light is stronger than darkness. It’s a foolish thing to believe that we are a graced congregation, gathered from whatever darkness and defeats have left their mark on our lives. It is that very foolish part of ourselves and our community that the divine spark can kindle into light. The Collect today says “proclaim to all people the good news of his salvation.” That’s not about convincing people of doctrines. That’s humbly sharing and showing that light has shown in the dark places of our lives and in our world. That’s showing how an insignificant-seeming life can be set ablaze by that mysterious spark that comes as a gift.
If we’re feeling foolish and at the end of our rope, maybe it’s then that the divine light can really do something with us!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Advent 1 - 12/1/2013
(Guest homily by Malcolm Heath)
This is the first Sunday of Advent, and I found myself
wondering, as this day approached, what this season of the church means.
The other seasons of the church, I feel like I have a pretty
good idea what they’re about. Easter is
of course pretty clear. Pentecost,
perhaps less so, but I still have some idea.
But I found that when I thought about Advent, I came up with
very little.
When I was a child, we used to celebrate Advent in my
home. We had candles, and a wreath, and
a little book of readings, and each Sunday we’d light a new candle, and do a
little service, and as I recall, this was somehow combined in my mind with opening
the panels of an Advent calendar. I have
since learned that some of these have a little treat for each day. The calendars of my youth didn’t – just a
little picture for each day.
What I got out of this was mainly that Christmas was
coming. Of course, in a child’s mind,
this wasn’t connected to the idea of God becoming Man, the Incarnation, the
Word becoming Flesh. Instead, it was a
simple countdown to a big meal, and presents.
I don’t think my conception of Advent has really moved much
past that in the intervening years.
This year, however, has been a bit different for me. My wife and I have gotten all of our shopping
done already. I don’t have any really
major things to accomplish before the big day.
I have the time to think about it, which is a pretty amazing situation,
and very unusual.
I’ve got a lot of time to just do nothing.
But then, as I thought more, it occurred to me that the idea
of waiting is central to Advent.
But why have this season of waiting? And what is it that we are waiting for? People talk about “preparation” which makes
it seem like we should be doing something, like we should be dusting and
vacuuming, that we should be putting out trays of food in preparation for the
arrival of an important guest. But I don’t think that’s it.
What I think this season is for is to realize something
really simple. It’s making space for the
realization that there’s something missing, and that we don’t, and can’t, know
what we’re waiting for.
It’s easy to ignore the things in our lives that aren’t
actually there. We have lots to do, more
immediate needs to deal with, and even when we have all that we need in terms
of necessities, we can still find plenty to do to avoid thinking about things
we’re lacking. So, it’s actually kind of
difficult to have the time, and space, much less the motivation, to really sit
down and ask ourselves what we’re missing.
So this Advent-tide, let me ask you all a question. What’s missing in your lives? What do you lack in your heart? Do you have that feeling like there may be
something that you can’t quite put your finger on? Something that despite perhaps having all you
might need or require, and having a high degree of confidence that if only you
could figure out what this certain something is, you could possibly find it, or
make it, or buy it at a mall, that nevertheless, you know that you won’t be
able to find it there? That it’s beyond
your abilities somehow?
Because it’s that feeling that I think Advent is about. That need.
Without that need, I think, Jesus is just another
prophet. A wise man with some
interesting things to say. And those
have been a dime a dozen over the millennia, and that’s hardly worth writing
home about.
Without that need, that understanding of lack in our hearts,
Jesus is just a man, and he’s just another poor kid who was born out of wedlock
to poor parents, a very long time ago.
Without that need, that understanding that this is not
something we can do for ourselves…there really isn’t any place for him to
come. Nowhere to lay his head. No room at the inn.
Now, I’m not sure if this is what Advent is. But it seems to me like it might have
something to do with it.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
How's the house look?
Proper 27 C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp27_RCL.html
“How does this house look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
Two Vestry members recently walked around the church building with a parish member who has taken a keen interest in the condition of our property. They noticed things that we who walk in and out for an hour or two on Sunday learn to ignore—disrepair, disheveled grounds. The west face of the church, the side we never see but the neighbors do, is peeling paint from back to front.
I do not think I have ever preached about the church building before, but our first reading is about a building and what it means. Haggai the prophet preached during the time when the people of Israel had returned from exile and were trying to rebuild their lives in and around Jerusalem. It was hard, discouraging work: so much needed to be done, and they had so little energy and funds to do so. Re-building the Temple itself started then stopped—other projects seemed so much more important.
Take a look, says Haggai. Does anyone remember what it was?
As Rector of an older congregation I tend to be allergic to “good old days” stories—nostalgia tends to surround memory with a golden glow. Sometimes “good old days” stories are told with a kind of bitterness by people who are upset because life changes and they themselves have changed and aged. But this month we remember the dead and their witness. We unearthed a scrapbook of past generations of church-people living and worshiping and serving right here, each generation with their hopes and their struggles and their sense of mission.
We’re here now. We are here, doing our best to live out what we believe Christ calls us and empowers us to do. We are a different congregation from those who photos are in the scrapbook in the hall. They in turn were different from the generation that they succeeded in this place.
It’s up to us to answer those hard questions that the prophet poses: “How does this house look to you?”
Church buildings do not exist for their own sake. They exist for the sake of the Gospel and the people of God. We have a distinct mission here that has evolved over recent years. We have a special gift and call to reach out to the poor. We have a special gift and call to break down barriers of culture and race, most specifically through our growing Hispanic congregation and who we are now because of their presence. We have a special gift of welcome and openness to our neighbors. We are strengthened and sustained in this mission through ancient Catholic and Episcopal faith and practice, lived through lives of prayer and shared Word and Sacrament.
God is so good to us. We have a reason to be here.
The building is where we gather, where we welcome, where we celebrate and serve. It is the visible symbol of our presence in this neighborhood, our mission.
I think this season leading to our Consecration Sunday asks us vital questions. We’ve lived faithfully through many changes and challenges. It is our time to claim our life here in faith, to celebrate it and give thanks, and to re-build and renew whatever in our lives and yes, in the property and building given to us in trust, calls for renewal and new life.
We’re not poor, and we’re not small. Hear the prophet’s words to us:
“Take courage, work, for I am with you”
“My spirit abides among us; do not fear”
“Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth… The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.”
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp27_RCL.html
“How does this house look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
Two Vestry members recently walked around the church building with a parish member who has taken a keen interest in the condition of our property. They noticed things that we who walk in and out for an hour or two on Sunday learn to ignore—disrepair, disheveled grounds. The west face of the church, the side we never see but the neighbors do, is peeling paint from back to front.
I do not think I have ever preached about the church building before, but our first reading is about a building and what it means. Haggai the prophet preached during the time when the people of Israel had returned from exile and were trying to rebuild their lives in and around Jerusalem. It was hard, discouraging work: so much needed to be done, and they had so little energy and funds to do so. Re-building the Temple itself started then stopped—other projects seemed so much more important.
Take a look, says Haggai. Does anyone remember what it was?
As Rector of an older congregation I tend to be allergic to “good old days” stories—nostalgia tends to surround memory with a golden glow. Sometimes “good old days” stories are told with a kind of bitterness by people who are upset because life changes and they themselves have changed and aged. But this month we remember the dead and their witness. We unearthed a scrapbook of past generations of church-people living and worshiping and serving right here, each generation with their hopes and their struggles and their sense of mission.
We’re here now. We are here, doing our best to live out what we believe Christ calls us and empowers us to do. We are a different congregation from those who photos are in the scrapbook in the hall. They in turn were different from the generation that they succeeded in this place.
It’s up to us to answer those hard questions that the prophet poses: “How does this house look to you?”
Church buildings do not exist for their own sake. They exist for the sake of the Gospel and the people of God. We have a distinct mission here that has evolved over recent years. We have a special gift and call to reach out to the poor. We have a special gift and call to break down barriers of culture and race, most specifically through our growing Hispanic congregation and who we are now because of their presence. We have a special gift of welcome and openness to our neighbors. We are strengthened and sustained in this mission through ancient Catholic and Episcopal faith and practice, lived through lives of prayer and shared Word and Sacrament.
God is so good to us. We have a reason to be here.
The building is where we gather, where we welcome, where we celebrate and serve. It is the visible symbol of our presence in this neighborhood, our mission.
I think this season leading to our Consecration Sunday asks us vital questions. We’ve lived faithfully through many changes and challenges. It is our time to claim our life here in faith, to celebrate it and give thanks, and to re-build and renew whatever in our lives and yes, in the property and building given to us in trust, calls for renewal and new life.
We’re not poor, and we’re not small. Hear the prophet’s words to us:
“Take courage, work, for I am with you”
“My spirit abides among us; do not fear”
“Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth… The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.”
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Consecration Sunday!
Consecration Sunday Is Coming!
Congregations that approach financial stewardship from a biblical perspective do not view the money Christians give to their church merely as a way to pay its bills. Rather, such congregations see financial contributions as a way to help people grow spiritually in their relationship with God by supporting their church’s mission and ministry with a percentage of their incomes.
Saints Peter and Paul’s Vestry has selected the New Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program as a way to teach the biblical and spiritual principles of generous giving in our stewardship education emphasis this year.
New Consecration Sunday is based on the biblical philosophy of the need of the giver to give for his or her own spiritual development, rather than on the need of the church to receive. Instead of treating people like members of a social club who should pay dues, we will treat people like followers of Jesus Christ who want to give unselfishly as an act of discipleship. New Consecration Sunday encourages people toward proportionate and systematic giving in response to the question, “What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?”
During morning worship on Consecration Sunday, we are asking our attendees and members to make their financial commitments to our church’s missionary, benevolent, and educational ministries in this community and around the world.
Every attendee and member who completes an Estimate of Giving Card does so voluntarily by attending morning worship on Consecration Sunday. We urge people to attend who feel strongly opposed to completing a card. The procedure is done in such a way that no one feels personal embarrassment if he or she chooses not to fill out a card.
We will do no home solicitation to ask people to complete cards. During morning worship our guest leader will conduct a brief period of instruction and inspiration, climaxed by members making their commitments as a confidential act of worship.
We will encourage participation in Consecration Sunday events through the Consecration Sunday team and Vestry members. Since we will make no follow-up visits to ask people to complete their cards, we will make every effort to inform, inspire, and commit everyone to attend Consecration Sunday worship.
Thanks in advance for your enthusiastic participation in Consecration Sunday events.
Jamie Marks Fr. Kurt Neilson+
Consecration Sunday Chairperson Rector
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