Halloween and Ordination

The Rev. Shannon Ferguson Kelly

October 31, 2007

Today is Halloween. It is a day that people dress up in costumes, some scary, some funny, some, just plain weird. I can remember the fun and excitement of Halloween as a child - the parties at school, trick-or-treating with my friends and family, and the great candy trade at the end of the day so that you got what you wanted. As I grew up, it became more about dressing up and partying. Now, as an adult, it seems that it has become a holiday that I enjoy through my child.

However, today is also the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. Eight years ago today, I was ordained at St. Mark’s Church in Palo Alto, California. It was an amazing day. All the kids came dressed up in their costumes. One child told me that I wore my “priest” costume and another told me that I was dressed in my “angel” costume (or my robe). My bishop from the Diocese of Idaho came for the ordination, friends, family and other clergy came to celebrate the day. There are many things that stick out in my head from that day, but one that I will never forget, and one that I’m sure Bishop Bainbridge will never forget, is the picture around the altar at communion. Not only were their priests in their “priests costumes,” but there were 20-30 children in their Halloween costumes, gathered around the altar together. We had Medusa, Pokemon, St. Patrick, ladybugs, princesses and monsters, all gathered at the altar – coming to the place where we are all welcome – at the Lord’s table.

As I reflect on these eight years, I hope that this picture of EVERYONE being welcome at the altar has encompassed my ministry and what God has called me to do.

In the Gospel of John we hear, ^“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” On this day when we are dressing up to scare people or when there are witches hanging in doorways and people jumping out of haunted houses trying to scare us, Jesus reminds us that we need not fear. Our life is not meant to be lived in fear. Rather, our life is meant to be lived in that space of faith and doubt, asking the questions and letting the Holy Spirit move among us and within us. As Christians we are called to be welcoming of everyone, to bring peace to the world and to live in the love of God, knowing that we are a part of God, and God a part of us.

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

- Book of Common Prayer, page 528

God Loves You. Pay Attention.

October 28, 2007

Proper 25, YR C

As I have sat watching the Red Sox play the Colorado Rockies over the last few days, I find myself tense, elated, stressed and disappointed over and over and over again. I am a Red Sox fan – something I became when I met my husband, Tom. For the first few years of our marriage, I watched and got to know the team and slowly got to know the agony of being a Sox fan. The Red Sox are infamous for being ahead in a game, and the loosing it in the end. They are known for making mistakes that take the win away from them. As I sat watching them last night, I realized that this pattern has something to teach us. The rollercoaster that is life – the ups and downs.

There are so many times in our lives when we are doing well, when we are feeling on top of things, everything is going well, we are hitting, we are scoring, as my son would say – we are cookin’ with gas! These times in our lives are joyous and life giving. They are good for our spirit and good for our soul. However, these times can also lull us into a false sense of security, they can lead us to not remember or not think about what we still need to work on and the things at which we are not doing well. When things are going well and we continually live in that space, we can begin to boast and sing our own praises. Now, don’t get me wrong – there are times in our life when we should boast and be proud of ourselves and love that moment. But that is not the whole picture.

In our Gospel lesson tonight, Jesus tells us yet another parable – this time about a Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee is someone that was respected in that culture. To be honest, this is the kind of person that most would want to have around. Someone who follows the rules, sometimes even goes beyond them – and in the parable, we hear him praying in an extremely boastful way. ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ I’m sure that I’ve prayed something similar to this – God, thank you for not making me like those people over there, and by the way have you noticed all of the wonderful things that I’ve done in your name lately? I think it’s easy for us to brag when things are going really well – when we seem to be doing things right.

However, we also hear from the tax collector, a person who was despised and hated in that culture. Someone you didn’t want around. He comes to the temple, with his head down, praying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ When I’m in that place in my life – I believe that my prayer goes something like, ‘God I don’t know what to do – help – I need you.’

Then Jesus says, ‘I tell you, this man (the tax collector) went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ The tax collector is raised up as the person to emulate - not because he is down and out in society, but rather because he opens himself to God in a way that the Pharisee did not. The tax collector comes to the temple in a vulnerable, humble, self-effacing manor. He comes asking for God’s forgiveness and love.

A relationship with God is about opening yourself to God rather then boasting about what a good job you are doing following God. We are not to play God, but to follow God. It is in following God in a way that allows us to admit our short-comings, allows us to admit who we are and who we aren’t in such a truthful way that we are completely giving ourselves over to God and God’s love.

This is one of the reasons why I have us all say together the collect at the beginning of the service. Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. God, you know our hearts, you know our desires, you know everything about us – therefore, cleanse us that we may love you absolutely and fully and come to know you in a new and different way.

This is a very different prayer from the one that the Pharisee was praying. The Pharisee did not ask God for anything – did not come to God in a relationship or to form a connection, but he came with an update – to tell God of all the wonderful things that he had done. He has not opened himself to God, but rather reports to God. On the other hand, the tax collector comes to God yearning to make contact, desiring a relationship and does that through being honest about himself and his life. In this moment, I believe that the tax collector is getting at a more fundamental question – one that he was probably not ready to ask. He says, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ but his real question is, ‘God, do you love me, even though I have sinned?’

Do you love me? This is a fundamental question that each and every one of us are born with. Whether we know it or not, we ask this question of every relationship that we have with each other, with God and with ourselves. As humans, we are created to be in relationship, to be in connection, to be in communion with the world around us. Do you love me? Over time, this simple, yet difficult question gets transformed into questions like – What can I do to earn your love? and/or Am I worthy of being loved? When this question does get transformed then we begin to focus on earning God’s love, earning each other’s love, earning the love that we give to ourselves, we begin to think that we have to prove that we are worthy, that we are good enough, that we are doing all the right things so that we can be loved. However, at its core, the answer to this question cannot be earned. The Pharisee is so focused on earning that love and being worthy of that love, that he forgets to ask for it, that he forgets that is his real goal behind all of his actions and his lifestyle. The tax collector, in his vulnerable moment, stops to ask the question by admitting fully who he is, and asking for God’s love anyway.

One of my friends just told me a story about her son who is about 11 years old. They were in the church where she is a priest and her children were with her. At one point her son got up into the pulpit and was standing there looking out over the empty pews. She said to him, “What does mommy do when she is up there?” Now she didn’t know what to expect, but wanted to know what he thought. The boy stopped, pointed his finger out to the empty pews and said, “God loves you. Pay attention.”

Our Gospel lesson today is saying just that. No matter how broken, how lost, how low we feel – God loves you. No matter how joyful, how happy, how on the right track we are feeling – God loves you. It is not an easy thing for most of us to understand. I’m not sure that I fully understand it to tell you the truth. But I do know that I came closer to understanding it when I became a mom. No matter what Malcolm does, no matter how wonderful or rotten he is being in a given day, I love him. I love him so deeply that I cannot fully express my love.

In the same way, God loves me, God loves you in that same way – no strings attached. God loves us so deeply, so fully, that we can and are expected to come to God as we are and ask for that love, come to God in relationship, connection and in communion – knowing that we are fully loved just as we are. Then, in that love, in that relationship, we can become who God has called us to be. God loves you. Pay attention.

St. Francis

St. Francis Sunday
Oct. 7, 2007

I want to share with you the story of Francis as told by Robert Ellsberg in his book All Saints Daily Reflections on Saints Prophets, and Witnesses for our Time.

“St. Francis was born in the city of Assisi in 1182. He was one of the privileged young men who was attracted to adventure, frivolity and romance. He was about 20 years old when he donned knights armor and went off to war. Hew was captured, imprisoned for about a year and then ransomed. When he returned, he became seriously ill and his recovery was slow. These experiences provoked a spiritual crisis which was ultimately resolved in a series of dramatic episodes.

“Francis had always been a fastidious person with an abhorrence for paupers and the sick. As he was riding in the countryside one day he saw a loathsome leper. Dismounting, he shared his cloak with the leper and then, moved by some divine impulse, kissed the poor man’s ravaged face. From that encounter Francis’s life began to take shape around an utterly new agenda, contrary to the values of his family and the world.

“While praying before a crucifix in the dilapidated chapel of San Damiano, Francis heard a voice speak to him: “Francis, repair my church, which has fallen into disrepair, as you can see.” At first inclined to take this assignment literally, he set about physically restoring the ruined building. Only later did he understand his mission in a wider, more spiritual sense. His vocation was to recall the church to the radical simplicity of the gospel, to the spirit of poverty, and to the image of Christ in his poor.

“Francis gave away all that he had, including the clothes off of his back. The bishop hastily covered him with a peasant’s frock, which Francis marked with a cross. And so his transformation was complete.

“The spectacle which Francis presented – the rich boy who now camped out in the open air, serving the sick, working with his hands, and bearing witness to the gospel – attracted ridicule from the respectable citizens of Assisi. But gradually it held a subversive appeal. Before long a dozen other young men had joined him. They became the nucleus of his new order, the Friars Minor. The beautiful Claire of Assisi was soon to follow, slipping through the city walls in the middle of the night to join the waiting brothers.

“Francis left relatively few writings, but his life – literally the embodiment of his message – gave rise to numerous legends and parables. Many of them reflect the joy and freedom that became hallmarks of his spirituality, along with this constant tendency to turn the values of the world on their head.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus also was turning the world on its head. “Come unto me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This might be one of the verses that Francis looked to often as it talks about turning things around and turning the upside down. The yoke of life is hard and our burdens are heavy, so what does this mean? Jesus wants us to turn our lives so that we can identify with the love of God which he experiences each day and once we can do that, our lives will look very different.

Francis did just that and his life radically changed. In today’s world, Saint Francis is one of the most “popular” of the saints. He may be seen in gardens around the world. His is enshrined on bird baths and bird feeders. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,” are words that we remember him by. He is the patron saint of animals, of animal lovers, of peace-makers and ecologists. He is remembered for his mercy to the poor and marginalized.

He marched to the beat of a different drummer. The rhythm of his walk continues to attract and fascinate people. He lived a radical life that makes some people nervous, and they would prefer to look at Francis from a perch in the corner of a garden, as a companion to our flowers and the world we love outside.

For me, Francis’ life story is an amazing challenge. He preaches the gospel not in words but in his actions and in his story. I think that is why people both love and fear him. Some want to pass him off as crazy – and let’s face it, he was a bit “out there”, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pay attention to him. We could call Jesus and all of his outrageous actions crazy as well.

When we really look at Francis’ life, he does not just speak the truth of the Gospel, but he lives it. In Francis’ life, we see the gospel made flesh – another incarnation story. Now, for us a call to serve like Francis does not have to mean a call to poverty or a call to leave behind our families. It is a call to live our lives differently, to turn things on their head – to live life as Micah charges us today, when he says “… and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8b

To do justice – the definition of justice as it is used here is the fairness or reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are being made. So, in today’s world how can we do justice - how can we contribute to the just treatment of people, the environment and the gifts that God has given us?

To love kindness – how can we practice being sympathetic or compassionate? How do we help those around us, how do we bring the Gospel into every interaction with people, either people we know or don’t know? How can we do the random acts of kindness that will change the world? Where do we start?

To walk humbly with God – how do we modestly, respectfully, lovingly walk with God each step of the way? How do we bring others on that journey with us?

Marcel Proust wrote “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but seeing with new eyes.” These are not new things that we are talking about today. Justice, kindness, humbleness on our walk with God are things that most if not all of us have thought of before. Today, Francis calls us to look at them in a whole new way. Since Francis is our patron saint here at the house, I’m hoping that we can take some time today, during dinner to look at ways that we can live out our call to justice, kindness and humbleness on our walk with God in innovative and creative ways. My hope is that we can all find ways to be instruments of peace in the world.

Where we place our Energy, Passion and Heart

Sept. 30, 2007
Proper 21, Yr C, rcl

At some point in all of our lives, we will have to face up to the truth about ourselves. We will have to be honest with ourselves about who we are and who we aren’t. We will have to look at our shortcomings and at our accomplishments. At some point, or more likely at many points along our long journey of life, we will have to look at ourselves, see who we are and see who we want to become.

In today’s parable, Jesus is giving us such a moment – a moment of honesty. In the ancient world, a favorite way of getting people to look at who they were and who they weren’t was to reflect with them what it would be like when they died. Would they go to hell? Would they go to heaven? How would their accomplishments and failures be judged?

Jesus is telling this parable to the Pharisees who loved their money. They believed that money or wealth was a sign of God’s favor toward you, it was a sign of God’s blessing and that if you were poor and without money, it was a sign of God’s displeasure with you. What Jesus is doing today in the Gospel is flipping that on its head and letting people know that money is not the ticket into heaven, and being poor is not the ticket into heaven either. This parable is really about values. Yes, you can be wealthy and enjoy God’s love, blessings and gifts – we can see that in the stories of Abraham and Sarah, David and Solomon. This is not a parable about money, but about who you love and where your energy, where your heart lies. It is about what role money plays in our lives. If you are constantly thinking about money – whether you are rich or poor, money is running your life, money is where your heart and your energy lie. The rich man in the parable is not an overtly evil man, but he is so preoccupied with money that he does not have the energy or the desire to care for others as he has cared for himself. It is only after the fact that he sees that he has been the servant of money and not the servant of God.

This parable is not about going to hell and what happens when you get there, but it is more about our lives, how we live them and where we place our energy, passion and heart. I was recently watching a show about what people who have won millions in the lottery do with their money. There were some who, of course, bought the extravagant houses, cars, and simply spent the rest of their life on vacation. Then there were those who chose a different route. One family put away enough money for what they would need in the future and then with the rest – which was about 4-5 million dollars – established a foundation and support network for kids who have cancer. It supports families during their crisis and helps with their financial needs along the way. Another young man who won, bought a modest house and then decided to go back to school to study and make himself a better person for the world. He used some of his money to help the people around him improve their lives, sharing his wealth. Today’s Gospel gives us a parable about sharing in God’s concern for the poor and reminding us that we need to see Lazarus in our midst.

It is not only about material wealth, but about all kinds of wealth – material, emotional, spiritual, intellectual. What do we do with what we have? Do we hoard it like the rich man? When we keep our material, emotional, spiritual and intellectual wealth to ourselves, it won’t do us or anyone else any good. However, if we share, give away, and spread our wealth, we are able to further the kingdom of God.

I am hoping this Fall that we, as a community, can truly focus on spreading God’s love, on sharing the material, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual wealth that we have. My hope is that we, as a community of committed individuals, can make our contribution to making the Millennium Development Goals a reality. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. We are being called to make our contribution. How can we do that? I want to explore that as a community and figure out ways that we can work together to make these goals our goals.

On your way in, you got a pamphlet about the Millenium Development Goals. I’d like for you to keep that and bring it to dinner where we can talk more about ways that we can spread our wealth – whatever kind of wealth that is and make a difference in our world.

One way that we can begin to make a dent in our contribution to the world is to sign up for the CROP Walk that is only two weeks away. Giving a brief part of your day can change the life of those who are hungry and those who do not have enough food. We, as a community, raised almost $1000 last year and this year, I would like to try to double that. It’s easy. Go online, register, and then send emails to all of the people you know asking them to sponsor you for the walk. This not only raises money, but raises the awareness of those around us to the issues of world hunger and that there are very real, very immediate things that we can do to help. There is more info on the walk that you will get when you leave, so, please, do your part, come walk with us and raise money to help fight hunger.

What else can we do? That is up to us.

For the next few minutes, I’m going to ask you to take the piece of paper that was in your pew. Write down ways that you, that we, that your communities can share our material, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual wealth. When you are done, please come forward and place it in the basket and we will offer it up to God as our way of committing ourselves to not be like the rich man who hoarded what he has, but to be a person who shares our wealth, a person who has concern for all of God’s children and a person who realizes that it is up to us to change the world around us and raise people’s awareness of these issues. In the Gospel, the man asks if he can go back to warn his brothers – our calling, as the people of God, is to be a prophet and to spread the word now, to get involved now, and to get out there and share. It is a basic concept that our parents began teaching us at an early age and there is no reason to forget that or to discard it simply because we are older.
How can we share what God has given us?

Ted plays music as the students write.
Bless the offerings at the beginning of communion.

Transformation

Proper 18, Yr C, rcl
Sept. 9, 2007

As much as I love summer break and getting to do different things that what I normally do during the year, I am truly glad to have you back and to be back. Probably like many of you, summer consisted of travel for work and for play and for seeing family (which is a mixture of work and play). At the beginning of the summer, I got to attend the National Chaplain’s Conference out in Seattle, Washington. I signed up and went because I wanted to meet other chaplains and get to know some of the people who were doing the same thing that I am and see what they are doing in their ministries. However, I got a whole lot more out of the conference than just meeting people. Sitting in a room with hundreds of other people who all do work similar to mine, I realized that I was not the only one in the room that both loved what I do and at times struggled with what I do. I remembered that I am not a minister, that I do not follow Jesus and that I do not feel called to work with youth and young adults because it is easy. I do this work, I live this life because it is what I am called to do. I’m not talking about being a priest, because that’s only a part of it, I’m talking about being a Christian. I’m talking about following God’s will and trying to remain faithful each and every day no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

In our Psalm today, we hear the words, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” It continues on, describing how the Lord knows us, even if we try to hide, the Lord is there. At times in my life, I have read this and felt rather suffocated or tied down knowing that there is not any moment in my life when I am not alone. God knows me, knows my thoughts, knows me so completely that I cannot hide. Then, I remember that yes, God knows everything about me AND God still loves me, God still seeks me out, God still wants me around, imperfections and all. No matter how screwed up we can get in our lives, God still wants us to be faithful followers and disciples.

We hear Jesus go on a rant today in the Gospel, which at first seems so counterintuitive to all the other things that we hear Jesus say – Love your neighbor, Love yourself, be kind, etc. But Jesus, at this point in his ministry is surrounded by people who are following him and are not thinking about what it means to truly follow him and what it means to live the new kind of life that he is asking them to live. Jesus is getting down to business and telling those around him, that unless they are ready to detach themselves completely from anything and everything that holds them back, either physically or emotionally, then they cannot be his disciple. Jesus tells them that they must give up their family, that they must hate their family, in order to be his disciple. Rather harsh words, and Jesus knew what he was saying. In that society, family was your identity. Family defined who you were or weren’t, it defined who you could marry, it defined how rich or poor you were. Family had great power in that society. Jesus is trying to let them know that in no uncertain terms, they have to give up some of the things in our life that get in the way of truly following God.

This is not just a test to see if you’ll do it – it’s not a hazing ritual to see how far you’ll go – this is about transformation. To transform is to undergo an extreme change, to shift into a new way of being. Transformation, the true kind of change that Jesus is calling for in today’s Gospel is a process of opening yourself to the new and putting the old away. It is about giving up so that you can receive. It is about leaving things behind, both good and bad things that get in the way, in order to find your direction, in order to journey without being held back.

When you come to college, when you leave your family at home and travel off to go to college, you are going through a transformation, whether you know it or not. The moment that you leave your home and go to your first class, attend your first activity, drink your first cup of coffee in your own room or apartment, your transformation begins. You have left family behind, you have left friends behind, and you have left countless numbers of other things behind as well. You left those things behind so that you can do something new, so that you can find a new direction in your life, so that you can pursue dreams and find your own journey.

At first this transformation can be exciting and exhilarating - the newness, the freedom, the differentness of it all. Then, the road can get a bit bumpy because you don’t have your family to fall back on, or because your old friends aren’t there to go talk to if you need them. Transformation is not easy, there will be bumps along the way, there will be joys along the way. But the outcome – what you get on the other side of the hard times and see the rewards along the way, it all makes your transformation worth while.

The good news also is that we don’t need to do our transformation alone. We don’t need to feel like we are the only ones in the world having these ups and downs, that we are the only ones who have ever wished that we could go back, or go forward in order to get through it and done. In times of transformation, like the ones that you are experiencing and like the ones that the disciples experienced when they left everything behind, you will find new teachers and mentors, new friends and new communities, you will find others who will walk with you and be with you no matter what. The disciples had each other. The first followers of Jesus had each other. My hope is that here at St. Francis House, that we can be a community for each other to grow, transform, journey, and experience our ups and downs together. My hope is that we can be a community in which we know that we are loved, held in prayer, joined together by God’s love and walk together as we undergo these important transformations ahead of us.

As you begin and continue your studies, you are on a path of learning and discovery that will lead you to find yourself and your path in life. You may be good at math, writing, sharing, teaching. Whatever it is that you find that you are good at and enjoy doing – that is your calling. A calling is when your God given skills and joys meet the needs of the world around you. Each of you are called to do something, teach, design, create, write – whatever it might be, you have a calling – something that is yours that you are to give the world. This summer, as I sat in that room with the hundreds of other chaplains, I realized once again that I do what I do because it is what God calls me to each day. God calls each of us to be faithful, God calls each of us to journey through our transformations, and God calls each of us to serve one another and in turn to serve God no matter where we are or what we are doing.

In a few moments, we will pray and ask God’s blessing on our studies, on our time together and on our service to the world around us. My hope is that you will take this prayer, this blessing with you and know that you are loved by God, that you have a community to journey with on your transformation and that God is here to guide you as you discover and live into your calling each and every day.

Go Forth in Peace and Love

6 Easter, Yr. C, rcl
May 13, 2007
Last service of Semester

I can’t believe a school year has come and gone. It seems like it was just Christmas Break, or maybe that’s because it snowed over Spring Break…at any rate, we have been together now for 8 months. Classes have come and gone. Tests have come and gone and some are still to be taken. What sticks in my mind our the times that we have spent together, the times when I have felt God in our presence – the welcoming and nerves at the beginning of the year, the retreat at Camp Webb, the CROP Walk, the singing and fun of the Christmas party, the diet soda and mentos explosion at the Christmas party, the quiet study times around the house, the snow, the sun, the Easter celebration and dinner, the wonderful dinners and lunches that we had together, the discussion, education and formation that we had together, and our singing together. I could go on and on.

It has been a formative year for all of us in one way or another. We are different now than we were at the beginning of the school year and our growth individually and as a community is significant. It is that time of year in which we start saying goodbyes, that time of transition, that time in which we all will go through yet another change. Some of us are graduating, some of us will be traveling in the fall and spring next year, some of us will be here over the summer, but doing different things than we are now, and all of us will work and play wherever we are this summer. Things will be different when we gather again which may bring both joy and sadness to your hearts.

As Jesus is talking with the disciples today, he is giving one of his farewell discourses, one of his talks in which he tells them that he is leaving, but that he will always be with them. Jesus knows that his last words are important, that last words lead those who are left behind. We see it all through the Hebrew Scriptures and we see it over and over again in our lives. The last thing that you say to someone sticks with them. A first impression sticks, but a last impression stays with us even longer. I still remember the last words my grandmother spoke to me before her death. I remember the last time I spoke with my dear friends and what we said to each other. Last words are important because they are what we cling to and remember when we think back on our lives.

Jesus’ last words are as true for us as they were for the disciples. Jesus said to them, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Jesus is telling them to love him by keeping his word and by living his teachings. How will we do this? How are we able to love as Christ taught us? Who will help us with such an overwhelming task? We are to do it with the help of the Holy Spirit, our advocate, who is our guide and who teaches us and reminds us of God’s will in our lives. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in the world now, and the Holy Spirit dwells within each and every one of us so that we might know God’s word, live Jesus’ teachings and know who God is each moment of our lives.

In these times of transition – the one that the disciples were going through and the one we are going through – it is important to remember that God is with us. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” There is no doubt that looking into your future may cause you some panic, some fear, some uncertainty. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t feel that, nor is Jesus. Jesus is telling his disciples that they should not let those things rule their hearts – that they should not operate out of fear or out of what is troubling them, but to rather move through their lives in love, in peace.

He says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” Peace is a state of harmony, the absence of hostility. Jesus is leaving them with a word of peace, bidding them harmony, telling them to seek that harmony in the world. On this same note, Mahtma Ghandi teaches us that peace requires not only the absence of violence but also the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. teaches that true peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. Our place, as people of God is to bring this peace with us wherever we go, to bring justice, to work for peace and harmony and a place where all can feel and know the love of God.

Peace and love are something that go hand in hand with one another. Love guides us to peace and justice for all. Our baptismal covenant directs us to work for love, peace and justice for every human being. We can’t have peace without love and we can’t have true love with out peace. So Jesus also could have said, Love I leave with you, my love I give you.

Finding peace and love in our lives also means finding God’s presence in our lives. When we find God, we find our true selves and then we are able to go into the world, doing our part to help others find the same peace and love that God gives freely to all. We find peace and love best when we are in community, when we can be together with other people and find God in each other and through each other.

I just met with some alumni this weekend for lunch and they were telling me that no matter where they go and what they do, St. Francis House will always be a part of their lives. It was a place of formation and growth, a place in which they bonded with friends and found God in their lives. My hope is that is what St. Francis House has been and will be for you. A place to come to be with others, to seek God’s presence, to discover where the Holy Spirit is moving in your life, to find where Jesus is speaking to you, and to do all of that in the context of a caring, loving, engaging and meaningful community. It is a place to find love, a place to find peace, a place to find God in and through each other.

The last hymn that we will sing today says it beautifully.

“Together met, together bound, we’ll go our different ways, and as God’s people in the world we’ll live and speak his praise.”

I send us off with this blessing.

Go forth now,

in the Faith which overcomes the world,

in the hope which will not disappoint you,

in the Love which never fails.

You are ambassadors of Christ,

and He is with you always.

Grace, mercy and peace,

from Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

bless, preserve and protect you all this day

and for ever.

Written by Ian Cowie

What does love mean?

“What does love mean?” This question was posed to a group of children between the ages of 4 and 8. Here are some of their answers:

Rebecca, 8: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis, too. That’s love.”

Chrissy, 6: “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”

Nikka, 6: “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.”

Tommy, 6: “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”

Elaine, 5: “Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”

Lauren, 4: “I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”

—Original source unknown.

The Finding, the Surprise, the Joy and the Sharing

April 8, 2007

Easter, Yr C, rcl

It is so good to have you all back from Spring Break and it’s good to be here today. Easter is such a joyful time of the year. I’ve always loved Easter because it is in the spring time (although you can’t tell from the weather this last week) and it is the time of year that is brimming with new life. Last year, my son was only a little over one year old - too young to really enjoy Easter. He was more perplexed as to why we wanted him to wear white bunny ears on his head and go pick up eggs that were brightly colored and placed in the grass in our backyard. However, this year as he is now over two, he got it. He had two Easter egg hunts – one with friends and one with family. He and his buddies loved the hunt – finding the eggs, filling the baskets and then sharing them after the hunt was over. It brought back so many memories for me and I’m sure that it all brings back memories for you. However, something caught my attention this year. After the hunt was over, after all the eggs had been found and they were all sitting around with their baskets in front of them, they began to open the eggs. Each time my son opened an egg, he would breathe in a short gasp [GASP] in excitement after seeing what was inside. For he and his friends, the fun was not over with finding the Easter eggs, the fun and the surprise and the joy continued each time they opened an egg to find what was inside. This caught my attention, because at the heart of it, this is the Easter story. The finding, the surprise, the joy and the sharing of what was found.

We hear from the Gospel of Luke this morning that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. I can only assume that they were grief stricken having seen Jesus die and having loved him as much as they did. Out of that love, they go to his tomb after the Sabbath to show him one last act of love – to take care of his body and properly finish his burial. They were going about their business, going about their lives, following the same cultural commands as they had their whole lives when they find that the tomb is empty. As they are standing together, perplexed, two men in dazzling clothes appear to ask them, “Why do look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember what he told you.” Remember what he told you. As soon as these men say this, the women do remember what Jesus told them, they remember him and his amazing work and they realize in that moment, standing in the empty tomb that his words had become true – that he was handed over to sinners, crucified and now, on this third day, he has risen from the dead. Jesus is not in the tomb but has risen from the dead. Without missing a beat, these followers of Jesus, run to tell others of their discovery. They cannot keep this news to themselves.

However, as they tell the apostles, they do not believe them – thinking that they are telling a tale. Some commentaries wanted to brush this off as the apostles not believing because it was a group of women that told them, but that’s not it. The problem isn’t that they are women, but that they aren’t remembering what Jesus said and they are living as they did before his death. Peter, is the only one to even act on this news as he runs to the tomb, stoops down to look in and saw that it was empty. He is amazed at what he finds, and goes home.

The apostles only come to understand the significance of what is happening well after the actual event. We will see this piece of the story unfold over the next few Sundays. It takes them a while to come to believe that he has risen, that he is alive, that he is among them once again. But today, the women believe as soon as they remember what Jesus said to them while he was still alive.

Remembering is in important part of the biblical tradition. All through the Bible we hear about people remembering words and events from the past that now inform how they live their lives with God. The empty tomb means nothing unless the women remember what Jesus said to them before his death. The empty tomb means nothing to the apostles until they too can stop and remember what Jesus said to them before his death. The empty tomb is just an empty tomb unless you bring it together with Christ’s life.

It is so easy for us NOT to believe, to be skeptical, to keep doing what we are doing rather than believe something new, something out of the ordinary, something that will change our lives. If we aren’t skeptical, if we don’t question the things around us then we come to be known as gullible, naïve, or childish. In our society, it is best to know what you are doing, and if you don’t know what you are doing, you better act like it. However, Jesus is asking us to be gullible and childish. Jesus wants for us to have that childlike faith that will allow us to discover for ourselves that the tomb is empty and then run to share it with others. Jesus wants us to run and to see the truth rather than dismiss it before we even explore the possibility of what is happening. It takes more courage to be like the women who believed and whose faith brought them to share their discovery with others. It takes courage to have faith than to be a skeptic. It takes more courage for us to explore and find rather than sit and not believe in the risen Christ. The women acted out of faith and belief, Peter acted out of curiosity and amazement – they acted.

A friend of mine reminded me of a saying this week, “You have to act your way to right thinking rather than think your way to right actions.”

It is so easy for me, for us, to believe that if we think or read or study the right things that we will finally find what we have been looking for – that we will discover that thing that is missing. We are reminded today that it is the act of remembering where God has been and what God has done that informs our faith, that informs our lives and that changes who we are. “The empty tomb can be understood and interpreted only in light of what the message of Jesus had been throughout his life. The death and resurrection of Jesus are not isolated events. They are a part of the ongoing activity of God in history. Each new event in this story must be understood in the context of the earlier events and words.” (Jirair Tashjian, Christian Resource Institute, 2007)

God is doing a new thing today, and God will do a new thing tomorrow. It is how we respond to these things that will change or not change the world. If we act as if each event is an event unto itself, the movement of God in this world will not make much sense. However, if we remember where God has been and what God as taught us, these new things will inform our lives and allow us to have that childlike faith, to have the faith of the women, to have the courage to act on that faith and run to others to tell them to good news. The resurrection is not easily understood, not easily known as we are used to knowing if something is real or not. The resurrection is a mystery and it is a part of our story as people of God.

So, as we come together today to celebrate Easter, to celebrate new life, to celebrate that God cheated death and rose from the grave, I hope that we can remember that mystery and let it live and move and have it’s being within our souls that it might inform our faith and lead us to act in the world in the way that God is calling us to do.

I want to close with some words from Martin Smith who said, “Let us not be tempted to react to the immensity of it all, to shrink the resurrection to the proportions of our understanding – that would be a worldly and banal Easter. Rather let us ask the Spirit to help us believe that something happened on that resurrection day that was powerful enough to heal every wound, to break down every barrier, unlock every prison, forgive every transgression, unite everything at odds, love enough to flood the heart, to raise everyone and everything dead and lost.” My friends, let the resurrection grasp us, and cause us to run into the world sharing the news of the resurrection and of God’s love for us. May our childlike faith take us into the world to seek and find, to delight in the surprise and joy, and to share what we have found.

[GASP]

Jesus Christ is Risen Today. Alleluia. Amen.

Anointing and Sending Forth

5 Lent, Year C, rcl

March 25, 2007

I was working out in my yard yesterday, cleaning out the beds, ripping out a bush and doing some basic spring cleaning in my yard. It was a great day – spent outside with my husband and son – enjoying the weather, enjoying finally being outdoors for a while. I always love this time of year when the greens are starting to break through the dirt, the buds are coming out on the trees, and the promise of summer is near. You see, I just moved here from Southern California where you don’t really have seasons – well, maybe a rainy season and sunny season and - - - and maybe a smog season. Having come from that, I really missed having a spring – that time of year when you are preparing your yard for growth and color and life.

In our Gospel today, we see Jesus and those around him (whether they know it or not) preparing themselves for something new, for a new stage, for what is ahead of them. Jesus has come to Lazarus’ house for what I can assume is a celebration and a thank you. As we are reminded at the beginning of the Gospel, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Mary and Martha are his dedicated followers – and these three friends have thrown this celebration or party to thank him and to show him their gratitude.

Each person here is playing their part as usual. The disciples are tagging along and asking questions. Judas was testing Jesus. Lazarus, a man who is greatly indebted to Jesus, is sharing a meal and conversation with him and they are spending what we would call “quality time together.” Martha, as usual, is busy in the kitchen, rushing about the house, doing her job to make sure that she is hospitable to anyone who enters, but especially to Jesus. And finally Mary, is doing what she normally does when Jesus is around – she is at his feet, soaking up his every word and trying to show her love and gratitude for him. In this moment, she breaks an extremely expensive jar of perfume over his feet, anointing them and rubbing the perfume with her hair. Now, washing feet was a normal thing to do in this culture and even anointing someone’s feet after a long journey was fairly common – but what makes this so shocking is that she does not use the regular oil, but oil that is so expensive that it costs as much as one year’s worth of wages. She is showing not just an act of hospitality, but an act of love. She also loosens her hair to wipe his feet – a shocking thing in that culture as the hair was always tied back to show a person’s dignity. Women took great pride in their hair and to loosen it, to use it for anything would have been considered extremely degrading. Mary is showing her willingness to serve him and her deep love for him.

Actually, each person here is showing Jesus their love in their own way. They are preparing him for his journey by feeding him, by sharing time with him and by anointing him for his difficult journey ahead. Each person surrounding Jesus is doing something to honor him.

When I was in Jr. High, my grammy was dying of cancer. No one really wanted to talk about it, and at the same time, we all knew that it was inevitable. She was really sick, and the writing was on the wall. So each time that we were with her, we made sure that we showed her how much we loved her. Close to the end of her life, she moved into our house rather than spending her last few months in the hospital. Each day, my sisters and I would go in and tell her about our day and what we were doing. She couldn’t say much, but she would squeeze our hand, or pat our cheek or say a simple, “That’s my girl.” Each time we were with her, we were saying goodbye before the final goodbye. We knew our time was special, we knew it was coming to a close.

Those that were around Jesus, and paying any attention at all to what he had been saying and doing, must have known that the end was near. As he sat in Lazarus, Martha and Mary’s house with the disciples, they were beginning to prepare for the end. They did not know when it would come, but they knew it was near. They knew that they should honor him while they had the chance.

A few days before my Grammy died, our priest came and anointed her with oil and said some prayers for her as she ended one journey and began another one. I remember the smell of the oil he used – I remember because it was still hanging in the room the next morning when I went to say goodbye before school.

The smell of this oil always brought me great comfort. Oils are a healing agent. When you apply oil to your skin it slowly sinks in, nourishing you and healing you. You can use essential oils to heal tight muscles, to calm down at the end of a hectic day, to relax, to become energized, to treat stress and depression, to help treat a cold and other illnesses and the list goes on and on. For thousands of years, oils have been used in this way and have been used in anointing as we hear about in the Bible. When you apply oil to your body and it begins to sink in, it can change a person’s whole outlook and can change the way a person functions.

Anytime that I use holy oil as a priest for baptisms or for healing or when I am at a confirmation or ordination and smell the oil that the bishop uses hanging in the air, I think of the time I spent with my Grammy and realize that each time in our lives when we are anointed, we are being sent forth again to serve God. Each time that we are anointed, we are being sent forth to serve in a new way. Anointing Jesus was Mary’s way to honor him, to send him off on the next part of his journey with a sensory reminder that he is loved and that he is not alone. Mary is responding out of her love and acceptance of him – she does not care what it costs.

So, during this last week of Lent, before we head into Holy Week, I wonder what each of us can do to show our love, our acceptance, our dedication to Jesus. How can we honor what Jesus did for us by the way we live our lives? How can we be like any of the people surrounding Jesus in the story.

Mary – anointing and loving him through her actions. Martha – being hospitable and taking care of him. Lazarus – dining with him, being his friend and sharing time together.

I encourage each of us to take time out of our busy weeks to do the things as they three have done. Love Jesus through our actions as Mary did, be hospitable and care for the people around us as Martha did, share time with people and intentionally be together as Lazarus did. All of these people were serving Jesus in their own way. We too, have to serve Jesus in our own way.

I want to share with you the words that my mentor, Bishop Thornton, said to me and to many others that he anointed over his years as a bishop. When we was doing a baptism, a confirmation, an ordination or any anointing he would say these words in order to send people forward on their new journey with God.

I bless your eyes that you may see God’s image in everyone

I bless your ears that you may hear the cry of those who call out.

I bless your lips that you may speak the Word of God.

I bless your hands that everything you give and everything you receive may be a sacrament.

I bless your feet that you may run to those who need you.

How are you being called to serve, honor, care for and love Jesus today, tomorrow and the next day?

The Letter of Love

Lent 4 Year C, rcl
Luke 15:11-32

This story of the Prodigal Son or the Lost son is one of the most well known parables that Jesus told. The premise of the story has been told in story form, plays, musicals, movies and more. It is well known, because at some level I think that most of us can find ourselves in one of the people in the story, if not a couple of them.

First, we have the youngest son, who is working on this father’s farm and decides to ask his father for what will become his when his father dies. A definite insult in that culture, but I don’t care what culture you are in, that is a bold move – asking your parent for what will be yours when they die. It’s saying – Mom, Dad, I don’t care that you are still here, I want what is mine now. He takes all that his father gives him, hoping to spend it on the good life. Instead, he squanders his money away and becomes poor and destitute. As he is the gutter, working with pigs (which would be a terrible thing for a Jewish man to do) and as he is in the dumps, he realizes that even his father’s workers are treated better than he is being treated. So, he decides to go home and beg forgiveness for what he has done and ask for a lowly job on his father’s farm. He is foolish, and learns the hard way what family means, what is important to him, what he gave up to “go live the good life.”

Secondly, we have the older son, who has also been working on his father’s farm for years. He quietly works and works and works, hoping that his father will notice and reward him for his hard work. He never asks for anything and gets extremely jealous when his brother returns and is welcomed with open arms and celebration. He is angry that his father has never thrown such a party for him or even thanked him by giving him a gift. He is stubborn and resentful and does not ask for the simplest thing that he wishes for. He instead stews about it and gets himself all worked up, rather than asking his father for what he desires. He does not see that the farm is his, that he already has his inheritance since his brother took his and ran. He cannot see what he has – only what he doesn’t have.

Thirdly, we have the father. He loves both sons equally and he gives them what they ask. When he thinks that he has lost his youngest son to the temptations of the world around them, he is grieved. However, when he sees this son returning, he is overjoyed – and doesn’t care why he is returning. His is just happy to see him on his way home – no matter what the conditions of his return are. He loves his oldest son, probably is thankful for his steady work and for his being near him as he ages. He is probably thankful that he has someone to hand the family farm to – someone to carry on what he has started.

Finally, as a side note, we have the fatted calf. Someone once pointed out to me that when he reflected on this story, and tried to find his own place in the story, he often found himself feeling like the fatted calf – you know – going on about his business, not bothering anyone, and boom – he is blind sighted by someone barreling him down.

So where do you fit into the story? Where do you find yourself? Maybe a mixture from a, b, c, and d? Maybe you find your somewhere in the middle? Maybe you are the youngest one moment and then turn and become the eldest in the next. I think that this is such an approachable story for many of us, because we can find ourselves in one, two, three or four of these characters.

No matter where you find yourself, the parable is truly about the love of the father – and thus a parable about God’s love for us. In the Gospel of Luke, we hear about God’s relationship with us over and over again. People are constantly coming at Jesus wanting to know the letter of the law and the writer of Luke is constantly turning us to look at the letter of the love, the unconditional love that God has for us. A bit before this parable, in chapter 11 of Luke, we hear, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.” God is constantly trying to get that across to us, and this parable is yet another way for Jesus to speak of God’s love for us.

So what is unconditional love? It is a love that is pure, a love that will ask questions, not to find answers - but to get the person thinking about what they are doing. It is a love that holds you through all of the pain, through the joy, through the tears, through the laughter. It is a love that teaches, it is a love that comes and gets you whether you are ready or not. It is a love that is planted in you from day one. Unconditional love is a grace-filled love which we all deserve. The whole aim of God's unconditional love has always been to bring reconciliation to the world.

Fredrich Buechner writes, "Love is to lose yourself in another's arms, or in another's company, or in suffering for all who suffer - including the ones who inflict suffering upon you. To lose yourself in such ways is to find yourself." This is what it is all about. This is what love is. Love is loosing yourself in order to find yourself. In the parable, both of the sons have lost themselves in very different ways. The youngest lost himself to the world, and returned to the father asking forgiveness. The oldest lost himself to his work and still has to learn to find himself again – and I have no doubt that he will get there. No matter how far away we get, no matter what we have done, no matter where we are on our journey we are welcomed back into God’s love again and again.

In the words of poet, Annie Johnson Flint

God has not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower - strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God has not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

But God has promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.

Amen.

Never Give Up

Lent 3, Yr. C, rcl

March 11, 2007

I recently read this story about Winston Churchill who was giving a commencement address. “After enduring a lengthy introduction, Churchill is reported to have risen from his seat, strode to the podium and stared fixedly at his audience of new graduates. "Never give up!" he pronounced solemnly. Churchill then turned, walked back to his chair and sat down. As the stunned students momentarily sat in silence, Churchill, with perfect timing, once again rose from his chair, returned to the podium and again announced, "Never give up!" Now, terrified they might respond improperly, the audience never uttered a squeak as their speaker once again returned to his seat. Sure enough, Churchill returned to the podium again, and again and yet again - five times - each time delivering his single-minded message, "Never give up!" At last, feeling he had exhausted his audience and driven home his point, Churchill himself did give up and returned to the podium no more. But you can be sure that every graduate in that audience never forgot that speech and never forgot that he or she was to "never give up!"” [1]

In our Gospel reading from Luke, we hear this message loud and clear. There are other accounts of the parable of the fig tree, but Luke’s is the most hopeful, the most redemptive, the most promising. God has promised, from the beginning of creation, that God will never, ever, ever give upon us.

- Adam and Eve disobeyed the very First Rule. But God never gave up.
- Abraham wandered, and Sarah laughed. But God never gave up.
- Moses hid and shook with fear. But God never gave up.
- Saul went insane. But God never gave up.
- David plotted against Uriah. But God never gave up.
- Ahaz sold out to Assyria. But God never gave up.
- Israel fell into pieces. But God never gave up.
- The Jewish people became exiles. But God never gave up.
- John the Baptist was beheaded. But God never gave up.
- Peter denied he even knew him. But God never gave up.
- The disciples all ran away. But God never gave up. [2]

God does not give up on us. God does not punish us because we have done wrong. Those are the two messages that we are to take away with us today. Jesus tells those around him loud and clear that the Galileans who died by Pilate’s hand and those that died when the tower fell on them did not die because they were more sinful than the others. It was a common belief then and for some it is still a common belief that when bad things happen, it is God punishing us, that we have brought it on ourselves. From this notion comes the age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Bad things happen to everyone, good things happen to everyone. All of our lives are filled with good and bad and that is something that we have to live with. Jesus had good and bad in his life – it is part of what it means to be human.

Suffering is not a consequence of being sinful – there is not a direct, one-to-one correlation between sin and suffering. Don’t get me wrong, when we are doing things that are hurtful, things that draw us away from God, there may be natural consequences of our behavior, but God does not will bad on us, rather God is willing to give us one more chance.

There are many times in our lives when we experience something that serves as a wake up call to us. These wake up calls usually come when we are suffering in our own lives or in the lives of those we love. You don’t know how many times I heard this theology when I was serving as a hospital chaplain. People were blaming the sickness of themselves or others on their actions. One mother told me that her son had cancer because she had stopped going to church and stopped praying. She told me that this was God’s way of getting her back.

But Jesus tells us loud and clear today that is not how God works. God does not make bad things happen in order to get our attention – it just so happens that when bad things do happen, we finally start paying attention, we finally wake up to the fact that we have to change our lives, change how we are living, change what we are doing in order to be the person God is calling us to be.

Amendment of life – that is what Jesus is talking about. Not merely saying sorry and moving on, but truly and radically changing how you live your life so that you will not continue to make the mistake over and over again. A few of my dear friends who are in AA talk about amendment of life. You see, in Alcoholics Anonymous, they make the distinction between giving up what you are dependent on and changing your life. One can give up the dependency, be it alcohol, drugs, food, whatever it might be, and still not be a changed person. True recovery or healing comes when they stop their dependent behavior AND take inventory of their life by looking at their anger, their mistakes, and their dysfunctions, and then asking God to remove them all.

Amendment of life means digging up those things that are not healthy and replacing them with something new, something nurturing, something which will ground you and cause you to live your life with God.

For the Jewish people of the time, the fig tree is a well known symbol of the peaceful and good life. When this tree is not producing fruit, it has no use and is to be torn down. I don’t know if any of you have ever taken care of a tree that bears fruit, but when I was living in California, we had a lemon tree in our back yard. It took lots of pruning, watering, fertilizing, etc. just to maintain the tree. When we talked to our friend who was a landscape architect about adding an orange tree, he said, “Sure, but you probably won’t see fruit anytime soon.” Trees that bear fruit often take a while to produce anything because they have to be nurtured and cared for – they have to take root before they can produce anything worthwhile. The fig tree in the parable may have been taken care of like the other trees around it, but for whatever reason, was not producing fruit yet. The Gospel of Luke gives us hope in that in the parable, the man lets the tree remain for another year in order to pay special attention to it and hope that it will bear fruit. The gardener plans to dig around it and add fertilizer, to remove the dirt that isn’t giving life, and to tend to the tree so that it will produce fruit.

There is still time for the tree to bear fruit. There is still time for all of us to bear fruit. Each Lent, we are given the opportunity to loosen the ground around us that may not be feeding us and to replace it with good soil, good ground that is nourished in God’s unconditional love for us. God never gives up on us. This parable is an invitation for us to repent, to amend our lives and grow in God’s love for us. God has not given up on you. Don’t give up on God and the opportunity to see what kind of fruit you are to bear throughout your live.

So to quote Winston Churchill, “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.”

---

[1] From Homiletics Online, 3/19/1995

[2] Ibid.

God's Undiminishing Love

2 Lent, Year C, rcl

March 4, 2007

Today’s Gospel lesson from Luke places us in the midst of the Jesus’ travels. He has begun doing his work and knows what lies ahead for him. As the Pharisees try to warn him of what may happen to him, he does not run away, rather he tells them that he is ready, and nothing will stop him. (Sort of a bring it on attitude – the I’m not scared, so give me what you’ve got.) He has much to do and is not afraid to do what he was sent to do. And, as he is doing his work in the world, he finds himself saddened by Jerusalem’s turning away from God. We hear his lament loud and clear today.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of David, the city of God, the city of the temple and worship, the place where may people journey toward. In this lament, Jesus is telling us that Jerusalem is going in the wrong direction, that they are not following God’s call to them, that they are being tempted and led in the wrong direction. Jerusalem, Jerusalem…we can hear the grief in Jesus’ voice – sadness at seeing a loved one go astray. Jesus laments that he is powerless to stop them even though he has tried. It is a sad image, and a beautiful image.

In this moment, we can see Jesus’ deep affection for the Holy City and its people. How he would love to save them and protect them just as a hen protects her chicks.

Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, tells about a window in a small chapel at the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. This high, arched window is centered above the altar. The window looks out over the city. The iron grillwork divides the view into sections, so that on a sunny day, you wonder if it is a stained glass window. What is different than other stained glass windows we have all seen, is that the subject is alive! It is not an artist’s rendering of the holy city, but the city itself, living and moving, going about its business.

Below that live window is a mosaic of a white hen with a golden halo and seven baby chicks. The hen has her wings spread to shelter the chicks, and she has a fierce look for anyone who would harm them. The inscription says in Latin, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often I have desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Haven’t we all felt this way? I mean, don’t we all have times in our lives where we look at our beloved, like one would look out the beautiful window – and then when we realize that they are hurting themselves, we plead with them to stop? There is nothing more horrible than watching someone that you love go astray, self-destruct and hurt themselves. It happens so often – to people all around us – in our community and in our families. It happens all over the world.

Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem is instructive. It tells us that no matter what we might do, God’s love is undiminished. Jesus is longing to give Jerusalem the same protective care that a hen gives to her chicks. His arms are spread, waiting for us to come and enter into God’s love, and it is up to us to make the move toward God, toward this relationship with the divine. God gives us the freedom to choose between good and evil – and with the freedom comes accountability and responsibility.

We have to help ourselves and one another get out of our patterns. About 13 years ago, one of my best friends growing up, was arrested and put in jail for drug use among other things. For about a year, his life had been spiraling out of control. He had been taking crystal meth, staying up all night, partying and hanging out with people who were spiraling downwards with him. One night right before his arrest, he called me so drugged out, that he was saying really hurtful things to me and saying hurtful things about people that I loved. When I hung up the phone, tears were streaming from my eyes. After the initial shock was over, I swore to myself that I would just write him off, that I would never talk to him again.

About a week later, his dad called and left me a message, telling me that he had been arrested and leaving me with his address. I sat down that night and began to write him a letter. It began as a rant about what an awful person he was, about halfway through, it turned into a letter of love from a friend to another friend. I gave him an ultimatum, turn yourself around, or I will never speak to you again. I told him that I loved him too much to see him hurt himself or others, and I could not stand by him any more – even though we had faired much over our many years of friendship. With his addictions and low-self worth, I figured I would never hear from him again. Instead, about a month later, he called, one of his weekly 5 minute calls from prison. The first words from his mouth were, “I am sorry, please forgive me.” That five minute phone call was a blur of emotion, but what I do remember is that we said to one another that we would help each other through this. He now has a wonderful job, a fabulous wife and three adorable children and we are tight friends who see each other through everything.

In this story, I was not the hen, trying to protect the brood, but rather one of the fellow chicks, helping another chick out. God is our hen, wanting to protect us, being there for us when we are ready to come under that protection and love. We, however are the brood, we are the chicks, the community that has to help each other get there. If you ever see young chicks, they will follow one another around in a little line. When one goes astray, usually one of the other chicks will help that one find its way back. We have to help one another find our way toward God.

No matter what we might do, God is there as the hen and is counting on us to help one another find the way. God’s purpose is always to redeem us, to bring us back to the fold, regardless of how far astray we have gone. No matter what we do in our life, God’s love is undiminished. Even though Jerusalem has killed prophets, even though they have gone astray, God does not give up on them. God will not coerce us to come back to God’s ways, but rather will plead and call us back. What we do is left to us which means that one of the things that we are all called to do as people of God is to love and help ourselves and one another on our journey toward God. We have to proclaim God’s love in and for God, our community and one another. God calls us to love and care for one another just as God loves and cares for us.

God’s judgment is tempered with grace, mercy and hope of redemption. God patiently invites us and then waits to see where our journey will take us – when we get lost, God calls us back again and again out of God’s undying love for us. This Lenten season, how are going listening to God’s call for you? How are you journeying toward God and God’s undiminishing love for you?

Journeying through Lent

Lent 1, Yr C, RCL

February 25, 2007

My friend, Wilma Jakobsen told me this joke a few years ago…

A priest was confronted by a mugger while walking down a dark alley. The thief demanded the priest’s wallet. As the priest opened his coat to reach for his wallet, the thief saw a clerical collar and realized this was a priest. Immediately he apologized and said, “Forget it, Father, keep your money; I had no idea you were a priest.” Both nervous and relieved, the priest took out a cigarette and offered one to the stranger. “No thank-you,” the thief replied, “I gave up smoking for Lent!”

Ever since the beginning of the Church, after Christ’s death, Lent was a time of penitence or repentance for those who had turned away from their faith and been excluded from their faith communities. It was a time for reconciliation and a welcome back to the community at Easter. Since that time, Lent has become more a time of devotion, penitence and preparation for the entire community.

At the beginning of the service we did what is known as the Great Litany, a set of intercessory prayers. It has been used from as early as the fifth century in Rome. It is used at various times of the year and in various services, but most noticeably, it is used at the beginning of Lent. It is a roadmap for us this Lent as we continue our time of devotion, penitence and preparation for Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. It is a set of prayers that reminds us that God is with us, and intentionally asks for God’s presence in our lives.

I remember the first few times that I heard this when I was old enough to remember what was really going on in church. I kept wondering, is it ever going to end? Aren’t they repeating things? What is going on? Are we going to start doing this every Sunday? Etc. Yes, the Litany is long, but if you think of all the ways that we can separate ourselves from our Creator, you can see that it could go on much longer to cover all the bases. The Litany is not about calling God to come to us, for God is already with us. It is about us calling upon God so that we might see God’s presence in our lives. We ask God to have mercy on us, to spare us from evil and sin, and from all other offenses.

Some people don’t like to talk about sin, thinking that it is an outdated term, thinking that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. However, sin is real, sin is what separates us from God – sin can be anything. Today, during the Litany, sang, “Good Lord, deliver us.” Deliver us from sin, blindness of hear, pride, hypocrisy, hatred. Deliver us in all that we do, that we might find you again and again, in all that we do. We sang, “Beseech thee to hear us, Good Lord.” HEAR us. When you hear someone, it is not merely listening to them, it is receiving what they are saying and sharing that burden, that petition, that sadness, that emotion, that piece of their lives with them. We are asking God to hear us, God to be near us, God to guide us.

The Litany reminds us that we are continually on a journey with God. Each of us here and the people around us are all journeying with God, be it consciously, or unconsciously. During Lent, we call upon God to help us make that journey a conscious journey, one that can change us, one that can call us into a new life.

On the first Sunday in Lent, we always hear about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Jesus has just been baptized and is then sent away into the wilderness. When I think of this particular series of events, I always smile to myself, because it seems that is often how it is in our very own lives. We have an incredible experience and then, come crashing down and have to deal with the wilderness in our lives. This is often the case because once you have had an incredible experience, once you have seen God in a new way, you cannot go back, you cannot stay there, but you have to go forward and try to figure out what all this means. That is exactly what Jesus is doing today. Jesus goes into the wilderness to find himself. To come to terms with who he is, to discover what it means to be human and divine. He is tempted by food, power and pride. The devil is trying to get him to use to the powers that he has not for good, but for gain.

Now, I don’t want you to think that the devil is the usual, red horned, red tailed, evil grinned devil, but the devil is that thing that causes any of us to use our powers, our lives for our own gain rather than for the good of the world. When I am being tempted to do something, it often feels like I do, in fact have the devil on one shoulder, saying, “Go for it, this is cool, what can it hurt” and an angel on the other shoulder saying, “You don’t need that, what good will this do, will this hurt anyone.” When this is happening to all of us, we feel the tug inside of us, we feel we are being torn between a choice. That is one of the joys and struggles of being human, we do have to make difficult choices. Who, what, where do we turn for a guide? Whenever you are wondering what the right thing to do is, look at what is in front of you and ask yourself, what will this accomplish? Does this thing bring me closer to God, does it bring me closer to knowing love, does it bring me closer to my neighbor? Remember Jesus’ commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself? That is our guide, that is the way for us to follow.

We are on a journey – this journey does not end – because it is a journey of relationship. Like any relationship, it will grow, change, go astray, find its way again and continue on. It is not a straight journey, it is not an easy journey, and during Lent, we are deliberately on this road, looking for where God is in our lives. On this journey, we will all face times in the wilderness, when we feel we are alone, when we feel like we have nothing left, when we have to go again and find ourselves and who God is calling us to be. One of my favorite lines of the Great Litany says, “ That it may please thee to inspire us, in our several callings, to do the work which thou givest us to do with singleness of heart as thy servants, and for the common good.” We do no figure out who we are once and for all and be done with it, God calls upon us to do different things all through our lives. Each time we find that we are being called to do something else, is often the time that we will once again find ourselves in the wilderness, or at least in a place where we have to discover who we are once again. Each time we change, we have to rediscover ourselves and our lives with God. That is why prayer is so important – it is a constant conversation with God, a time for us to find direction, comfort, our calling – a time for us to continually find ourselves and our direction on the journey. It may not be comfortable or easy – Jesus’ journey was not comfortable or easy – but it is who we are and we cannot avoid that.

So on this journey, May the Lord Bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his Countenance upon you and give you peace, both now and evermore.

The Road of Love

Luke 9:28-36

February 18, 2007

Every year, on the Sunday before Lent begins, we hear this story – the story of Jesus going up the mountain to pray with some of the disciples. Even though the disciples were exhausted and sleepy, they managed to stay awake and through their sleepy fog, they witness Jesus being transfigured and transformed as his clothes changed to a dazzling white. In the midst of this, appear Moses and Elijah. They witness a meeting point between heaven and earth right before their very eyes. They witness, see, and feel God’s presence.

As I reflected on this, I kept coming back to the questions, how is God present in my life - in your life?

For me, one of these moments did happen on a mountaintop. I was hiking with a bunch of my friends, a steep, rocky, dusty hike. We thought we were lost and people were starting to get really tired. The guy in front, Mike, who had arranged the hike and planned it kept telling us, “I swear we are close,” but we knew that most of the landmarks the guide book had talked about, we had not seen. It would be dark in about 3 hours and we had been hiking for 4 hours. There was nowhere in sight to pitch camp because we were on a steep incline. We were all frustrated, wondering when Mike was going to give up and turn around. So we stopped and talked about the situation and finally decided that if we did not see then next landmark, which was supposed to be an open field, that we would stop and turn around. As we all began to hike, ready to turn around, essentially having given up on our fabulous trip, there it was. It was not just an open field like it had been described, but a lush, green meadow with wildflowers and trees surrounding it. We dropped our bags, screaming and yelling, thanking God for this sight, for this wonderful place. Some wanted to go on, some, including me, wanted to stay and camp there – we wanted to preserve that moment when it had all come together. I wanted to preserve that moment, because it was in this moment that I felt my heart change, I felt God rush through me, I felt at peace. Well, we didn’t stay, and we moved on to the campsite another mile away which was by a lake, a beautiful lake, but all I could think about what that incredible meadow we had walked through and I wanted to go back and stay there forever. Why? Because in that moment, my life made sense. I was working with young people in the outdoors, I was with friends and I felt like I never wanted it to end.

I was like Peter – wanting to stay, wanting to keep that moment just as it was, not wanting to forget or move forward or anything because that moment had overwhelmed me and filled me with a sense of the presence of God in my life. But the thing is, we cannot stay there – we get that message loud and clear in the Gospel message today. We have to move on to the mission that God has given us to do in this world.

On that mountaintop, we see Elijah and Moses, with Jesus. Moses, a man driven from his home in Egypt who fled because he killed another Egyptian who was beating on a Hebrew. He fled from Egypt in fear for his life and made a new life for himself as he married and settled down. He is far from the place he knows as home, and in that place, he finds God. God calls out to him from the burning bush, not just to reveal himself, but to give Moses a mission.

Elijah, a prophet, a man whom people did not like to see coming around because he usually had something to say that they did not what to hear. Elijah is alone – or seems to be – and spent a lonely night in a cave where he encounters God, not in a burning bush, but in the sheer silence. God also does more than show God’s self to Elijah, God gives him a mission, to go and find a new leadership that will restore true religion and true justice. He is to be God’s hands in the world, working to initiate a new beginning.

On that mountaintop with Moses, Elijah and Jesus are the trusted disciples that Jesus brought with him – Peter, James and John. These are men who have been called out of their lives to follow Jesus. These are men, who, like the other disciples, are confused and not sure that this future brings for them. And now, on this mountain top, they see something they have never seen before. Jesus is transfigured before them. Jesus is changed, made into something they had not seen before.

Our faces tell what is inside of us. Our faces can tell the world if we are tired, having a bad day, if we are hopeful, if we are joyful, if we are scared. Our faces can tell the world about the state of our soul, the state of our being. Today, Jesus’ face shows his inner glory, his true nature – heaven and earth, God and human coming together in Christ.

So, what is the power that transfigures us? If we look to the epistle lesson, Paul is very clear about what should be our guide, what should direct us in this world. Paul tells us that no matter how the world around us elevates people, no matter what score we get on our test, no matter what degrees we have, no matter what you give away and do for others – none of this matters if you don’t have love. Love is the thing that gives real meaning to our lives. Love is the power that truly guides and directs us. You can see it when someone is newly in love – it is written on their face and in their actions. You can see it when someone is doing something that they love – you can see it in how they do their job and how they treat others. You can see love emanating from people. I’m not talking about the love that is the mushy, sentimental, buy someone diamonds and chocolate love that we see depicted on commercials for valentines day. This is the love that is a verb – the love that is not easy, but it is necessary. The love that keeps people together even when they are fighting. The love that guides us through difficult times and helps us elate together in good times.

Paul reminds us that love along with faith and hope, are eternal – and it is love that wins the day. Love is what we are remembered for, love is what transfigures and transforms us in to people of God.

One of the priests that I worked with liked to tell us about his seminary professor who told him that one of the most important things that we could do is to lead the people around us to be able to “epiph” – the root word of epiphany. To “epiph” means to show forth or to manifest the holy that is within you, so “epiphing” meant so show forth or manifest the beauty that is within each of us. This is the last Sunday of the Epiphany and I wonder how each of us is showing forth the glory of God within us? How are we transfigured by God? How do we show our love, God’s presence, to the rest of the world?

I was just on the annual clergy retreat and this year it was lead by Fr. Gregory from the Order of Julian of Norwich. He is a man of deep faith and love and he is a man that exudes God and God’s love for the world. I’m not sure that I will be able to describe it, but as I listened to him and as I talked to him over the three days we had together, it became clear to me that he had been through some deep struggles in his life and in his faith, and the only thing that got him through all of that was God’s love – even when he didn’t know what was guiding him. In his deepest struggles, in his darkest moments, it was only when he brought himself back to the center, back to God’s love that he was able to move forward and find his way. It is through God’s love that he was transfigured.

I don’t know if you have ever been up to a really high mountain peak, but if you have, you will know that the growth at the top of mountains is sparse. The place of growth in our lives does not come from our mountain top experiences. We have to take these moments with us and allow them to burn the image of God onto our hearts so that it will emerge and show on our faces and in our actions. We have to take these moments with us and bring God into our everyday lives – into the muck and the mundane, into the boring and the scary, into the joy and the fear. I often struggle with this, because I get so busy living that I forget to bring God along. So, this week, since I have returned, I have been trying to constantly remind myself, when I’m driving, when I’m changing a diaper, when I’m working, when I’m washing dishes and making dinner, when I’m playing with my child, when I’m not feeling particularly motivated to do anything, when I’m grocery shopping – no matter what I’m doing, God is there and God is a part of it. When we bring God into our everyday, we are transfigured into a person of faith, hope and love. When we bring God into our everyday, the people around us will be transformed and transfigured.

I want to end by sharing something with you that my friend, Ed Bacon once shared with me. He said, “I believe that each of us is faced with some decision or discernment. Perhaps today that decision or discernment in your life is relatively minor. But tomorrow the discernment or the decision you face may be completely life changing. I have come to believe that every decision is a fork in the road and though every decision or discernment may have many different factors or many different complexities, yet in almost every discernment or decision all of those factors can be seen as a choice between the road of fear and the road of love.

“My friends, love is the best road to take every time. The most fruitful road to take every time. Love is the most empowering road to take every time, the most lasting road, the road that will help you grow. The road of love leads to glory. The road of love lead to the epiphany of the divine within you. The road of love is the road that Jesus chose. The road of love is the road to take this Lent.”[i]

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[i] The Rev. Ed Bacon, The Best Road to Take Every Time, Sermon preached at All Saints Church 2/22/04

The Times are a Changin'

February 11, 2007

Epiphany 6, Yr C, rcl

Luke 12:6-31

You may have noticed that I added verses to the Gospel lesson as I read it this evening. It wasn’t a mistake in the bulletin, but rather something that I felt that I had to do the more that I thought about this passage. This evening, we were supposed to just hear what is referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, or the Beatitudes. The blessings and woes part of the Gospel lesson. However, the more that I read, thought, prayed about this particular section, the more I realized that I had to include what comes before and after this.

The Gospel of Luke is all about story telling, about weaving a picture of Jesus and his ministry through how each piece dove tails on the next. We cannot hear the Sermon on the Plain without knowing that he has just called his disciples and that this is their first real lesson on what it will mean to follow him and what he is about.

You see, for me, it is difficult to just hear the Sermon on the Plain and not hear anything else, because I don’t believe that it gives the whole picture of what is happening and what Luke is trying to tell us about Jesus. But, if we read what comes before and what comes after, we see Jesus is forming his ministry, we see that he is telling the disciples that times are a changin and that everything is going to be different now that they are following him and now that he is in the world.

So let’s walk our way through this and see what story it tells us through the words of Luke.

Jesus has just been up on the mountain praying. He is taking a time out. He is taking a breather. He in silence, spending time with God before he continues on the journey. As he comes down the mountain, he calls the disciples, those who will follow him and help him in his ministry. He doesn’t call the most powerful or the most tight knit crowd, but rather a motley crew of people with different occupations, different backgrounds and no one who had power in the society around them.

He chose the twelve and took them to a level place – took them to a place that is not too overwhelming, but a place where they can gather and discover more about this man they have just left everything for. On this level place, he begins to teach them as others are gathering around. He begins to teach by telling them that things are not going to be the same. That those who, in this society, are down and out – they will be glorified and raised. And those who seem to have everything – they will loose what they have and will be sorrowful and lost.

These sayings of “blessings” and “woes”, are not Jesus glamorizing poverty and suffering – nor is he calling us to go become poor or make ourselves sick or weak. There is something much greater in this message.

Jesus knew that being poor and sick and on the outs can lead to despair and lead to a life that is full of pain and more suffering, but he also know that when we are in our greatest need is often when we find God. When we are in need, we are more likely to turn to God than when we feel that we have everything. That is where the woes come into the picture. The woes are to get the attention of those who do have everything – or those who think that they have everything. When we have everything, and when we are happiest, is when we are in the most danger of loosing our way, thinking that we know best, thinking that we are in charge. When we are in a position where we have what we need and we are powerful and independent, we often run the risk of forgetting what we really need – and that is life with God our Creator, God who walked among us, and God who dwells among us each and every day.

Jesus is telling his disciples that they don’t need anything but God in their lives. That it doesn’t matter what they were before, because with God, they will find power they never knew they had. It doesn’t matter where they have come from or what they are dealing with, because God is with them to lead them, to comfort them, to guide them and to give them what they need in this life and in the next.

God is with them and will continue to be with them no matter what they encounter, no matter what life brings their way.

Jesus continues to prepare them for their new life by telling them how to live differently, how to live as God wants us to live. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the check, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

This, is a radically different world view – love our enemies? Do good to those who hate us? Bless those who curse us? Pray for those who abuse me? What is Jesus talking about? This isn’t how the world is run. Ahhhh – but for Jesus, this is how the world is run. God is calling them, and in turn us, into a different way of life. When you are struggling with someone, pray for them, love them, and send them good thoughts. When you know that someone hates you, do something nice for them, and treat them well. When someone is speaking ill of you, bless them. And when those around you are abusing you in whatever way, turn and pray for them. How in the world will this help us? And what does this have to do with God?

Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” If we look to the Muslim faith, they have a similar saying, “Live in harmony, for we are all related.” And the Jewish faith says, “What you yourself hate, do to no man.” Each of the major religions are guided by what many call the “golden rule” – or the way that we are to treat one another and live in the presence of God. I remember this from my kindergarten Sunday school class, but it is not a child’s lesson. This is a lesson for us all. Think about it – if we truly treated everyone around us how we would want to be treated, the world would be a radically different place and that is the place that Jesus is teaching about, that is the place that God wants us to live in and that is the place that the Holy Spirit is leading us to.

Our world needs us to live into what Jesus taught in order for us to bring the Kingdom of God here on earth. And how do we do that?

I’m not going to answer that, because for each of us, it will be something different. I’m asking for each of us, myself included, to go somewhere and be quiet with God, to pray, to find some space in this next week and intentionally be with God. Jesus did this often, especially as he was about to embark on a new journey or when he needed direction. Prayer is about opening yourself to what God might be asking of you. I’m asking you to do this now, so that we can all be more prepared for Lent which will be here in less than two weeks. Lent is a time of soul-searching and repentance, a time what we intentionally are brining ourselves closer to God. It is a season for taking stock of your life and for reflection. I’m asking us to take this next week and a half to prepare ourselves for Lent, to prepare ourselves for what Jesus is asking of us at this time in our lives.

How are you going to change your life to more closely live with God? What can you do differently, or what can you start doing in order to bring the kingdom of God here on earth? Pray, be in silence, be with God, find that space each day where you can pause and ask God what you are to do with your life so that we do not need to live with blessings and woes, but rather with equality and love, treating one another with respect and love.

Peter and Finding Nemo

Epiphany 5, Yr C, rcl

February 4, 2007

As I spoke to a few of my colleagues this week about the text for today, many of them said things like – oh yeah, the calling of the first disciple, or the fishers of people story. Many of us hear this gospel and think – oh yeah – I remember this one. And if you are at all like me, sometimes that makes you tune it out. If we’ve heard something before or if we are familiar with something, it makes it all the easier to tune it out, to let our minds go to something else, or to just sit back and not really take it in. This was my attitude as well as I started to work on the text this week, then, something happened. I watched Finding Nemo for the millionth time with my son, and something between the two very familiar things clicked. Something new happened in my head, heart and soul as I was thinking about this text and watching Finding Nemo.

Yes, Jesus does call Peter into discipleship. But what we cannot ignore is that Jesus comes to Peter where he is, in his everyday life. Jesus begins to teach the crowds near Peter’s boat. Then, Jesus hops into his boat and teaches from there. Jesus is teaching the multitudes from the shallow waters, he is teaching them new things, things that they may not have heard before, things that will begin to change their lives. Now, he turns to Peter and asks him to take is boat out further and fish in the deep waters. Peter, protests mildly, saying he has already been fishing all night, but in a moment of grace and faith, Peter does as the Lord asks and takes the boat out into deep waters.

The imagery of water, the use of water is all throughout the Bible, it is all throughout literature, and it is all throughout history. Water is a symbol of new life. Water teams with life with creatures, with new waters flowing in and waters flowing out all the time. Water is a life-giving, life-changing thing for all of us. Water gives us food, water allows things to grow, water is our life source.

When Jesus asks Peter to go out into the deep waters to fish, he is not merely asking him to fish, but asking him to go to the waters where you cannot see the bottom, go to the waters where you don’t know what you will get and cast your nets. I don’t know if you’ve ever been swimming in deep waters, but you never know what you will find, what you will discover.

Jesus is asking Peter to go where he has not gone before – to go into unchartered waters. This is where Finding Nemo comes in. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s about a clown fish, Marlin, who is scared of the ocean because of an event in the past. Now, his son, Nemo, is swept off by a diver, and Marlin has to leave the safety of his home and what he knows and go into unchartered waters to find his son. Throughout the movie, Marlin is constantly being challenged pushed to a place he never thought he would go, both physically and emotionally. Jesus is taking Peter into unchartered waters, asking him to trust him and go places he never thought he would go.

A few years ago, one of my mentors, Ed Bacon gave me this image of going where we haven’t gone in order to find ourselves. He talked passionately about Dr. Mary Pipher who is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in Nebraska who wrote the popular book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. A few years after, she came out with a new book entitled Letters to a Young Therapist. In this book, she writes about what she has learned as a therapist. In one of the chapters, called “Deepening Therapy,” she talks about connecting what are surface complaints to deeper issues. It is about challenging the denial with which most people live so that they can come to terms with the impact that it has on themselves and those around them. She says that good therapy moves people out of compartmentalizing their lives and helps them find a richer and greater self knowledge. For her, therapy is about inviting people into a deeper way of living so that the things that get in the way, the things that block us from living fully can be removed and each of us can find who we truly are created to be.

For Ed, and for me, this is a very engaging way to understand our journey with God. “God loves us so much that every day is about God’s love posing questions to us or placing you and me in circumstances where we can go deeper into the beautiful life that God has envisioned for each member of the human family and for the human family together.” (Ed Bacon, Sermon 2/8/04, All Saints Church, Pasadena, CA)

Today, we hear in the from Luke’s gospel that Jesus loves Peter so much that the way Jesus calls Peter is to send Peter into the deep waters of life. God loves us so much, that God calls us into the deep waters of life. In the movie, Finding Nemo, it is only by swimming through these deep waters that Marlin is able to find himself, his son and the world around him. It is only by swimming through these deep waters that he was able to find who he truly is meant to be.

As Jesus calls Peter, and thus you and I as well, into these deep waters, we are being called into the places in our lives where we are often in over our heads. It is in these places that we can be challenged and where we can begin to decompartmentalize our lives in order to find who we truly are and who God is calling us to be.

If you know anything about Peter, you know that he was far from being a perfect disciple, and Jesus knew that the day that he called him from the shores into deep waters. God does not call us because we are perfect, God calls us because are part of God’s creation for the world. That’s right, you and I, just like Peter are called by God to go into the deep waters.

When Jesus called Peter to “fish for people,” it was much more than evangelism. In the Old Testament, Amos and Jeremiah talk about “catching people,” but in this context it is more about getting people to amend their lives and turn toward God. Jesus is calling for Peter to turn his life toward God in order to find what and who God has made him to be.

I don’t know how God is calling you into deep waters in your life right now. I only know that God loves you so much that everyday God is calling you to a new place in your life, telling you that no matter where you are, if you follow God’s calling and delve into the deep waters, you will find yourself and you will find God. Jesus gets into the boat with us. We are not on this journey alone, but we have to take that first step and take the boat into those deep waters, into those unchartered waters so that we too can find new life with God, new life with each other and new life within ourselves. Go deep and see where it takes you, see where you find God in those new waters.

Calling

January 28, 2007

Epiphany 4, Yr C, RCL

I almost always preach on the Gospel, but today, I’m going to focus on the Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah. I do this because I believe that it has something important to say to all of us. God comes to Jeremiah and says I need you. Jeremiah begins to tell God why he cannot serve God – I am too young and I do not have the words to speak of you as you deserve. I think that we can read into this – send someone else – you clearly must be mistaken by choosing me – I cannot do what you are asking me to do – there are others who can do this much easier than I. God comes back and says – I don’t care what you think or say, I’ve chosen you and you will serve me – it will not be easy, and I want you - I am calling you.

I could be wrong, but I think that it is safe to say that none of us have been called to be a prophet as Jeremiah was. Even when we have heard or felt a call from God, I don’t think that it was this intense, or that we were called to be a prophet to the nations. (If I’m wrong, please see me afterwards.) Thing is, it doesn’t matter that we haven’t been called like Jeremiah. What is important is that we are all called in one way or another. We have all been called to serve, we have all been called to a ministry, because God has a vocation or ministry in mind of all of us. I know from my experience that when I have felt called by God to serve in a new way, many times I argued just as Jeremiah and the other prophets did. Let's see how many of these phrases ring true for you today. . . "I am too young," "I am too old" "I don't have enough experience" "I am too busy" "You know, I think that so and so would be better at this than I would" "I am too tired" "I am too small for this big job" "No one will listen to me" "Maybe next year when this project is out of the way I can do that" I know that those are all things that I have said to myself, to others and to God when I am trying to justify not wanting to do what God has placed in front of me.

I make excuses, we all make excuses as to why we can’t do things, why we think someone else would be better for this, but the bottom line is, we are just as good as anyone else. The problem is that many times we don't believe in ourselves. The good news is that God believes in us, God calls us to be prophets in today's world, and God gives us the tools to be a great prophet. The only problem is, that we tend to sell ourselves short, we don't believe in the gifts that God has given us, and we can easily come up with excuses to try and work our way out of a situation. We question ourselves, our call to ministry, and our relationship with God.

That’s okay, because when we question God and what God has called us to do, we are joining a large group of people. Some you know well. Moses who stammers, Jonah with his misguided notion of what needs to happen, Jeremiah who is overwhelmed by the call and is sure that he’s too young and inexperienced, Isaiah who does not think that he is worthy enough for the job, Mary questioned God, Sara laughed at God, Peter who was fearful and impetuous. I could go on and on and those are just the people in the Bible. Questioning God and our place in the grand scheme of things is part of the journey of finding ourselves and God.

Here’s what it comes down to… God knows us better than we can know ourselves. For many that is rather scary, but if we look at it from a different angle, there is great comfort in knowing that God knows us, that God understands us - even when we do not understand ourselves.

Your calling to serve God does not happen when you are ready, but it happens when God is ready. The only thing that we can do on our part is try to be open to the conversation. If you really think about it – God does not need us because God is God. However, God has chosen to work through God’s own creation – that’s you and me. Our job in the midst of our lives is to find ourselves and thus find where God is calling us to be in the world. What is your truth, your passion – where do you put your heart and soul?

The first time that the thought of becoming a priest entered my head was not in prayer or in church, but rather standing in the kitchen at a youth event when I was 17 years old. The bishop was hanging out with us and simply said, “You will make a great priest someday.” I laughed – almost spewing coke out of my nose and said – no thanks – I’m going to go be a physical therapist. God works in mysterious ways and through the people around us and in the everyday of our lives. You never know when or where you will find God.

Let me share with you a few people in my life and their various ways of serving God through doing what they are called to do.

My mom is a nurse. When she is helping people, she is in her element. She glows when she is taking care of people and hates it when administration and other things get in the way. Her calling is to be a nurse and to bring God’s love and healing to those around her.

My friend Amy is a mother and a lawyer. I have known her since eighth grade and she has always been one to try to improve the world around her either by making it a more cheerful, fun, beautiful place, or by changing things that weren’t right. She is now a lawyer who does water law – thus is working for the environment and saving God’s creation from ruin and from greedy people who are not thinking of the future.

My friend David, is not afraid to say that he truly loves Jesus. Jesus guides him, Jesus is his friend and savior. He is currently serving as a youth minister and that is a true calling. He is so gifted in bringing people out of themselves, into the group and into talking about their faith, their journey, their questions about God.

My friends Ron and Steve are the maintenance guys – the guys that take care of the buildings and grounds of my old seminary. They are people who are truly committed to making the world a better place for those around them. They will do whatever it takes to make the place run more smoothly, to make it function better and to take care of the students and faculty there. This is a true and deep calling for them. They have been doing it for years and see it not only as something that they do, but something that they live each day.

I could go on, but I think that these five people give you a picture that you don’t have to fit into one box or another in order to serve God. Serving God means living into what God has made you to be. God knows what that is and it is our job to find where God is calling us to be, where we will find our passion, our faith, our truth.

One of my favorite Simpsons episodes is one where Lisa declares that she is no longer a Christian and that she is going to find a faith that truly speaks to her. She goes on a quest to find who or what she believes. There are many people troubled by the fact that she has stepped away from the way she was brought up and they keep trying to pull her back in. Rather than allowing that to happen, she continues on – no matter what anyone says. Finally, she discovers that she is a Buddhist and finds great peace in that and is once again at peace with herself.

Our journey and our calling are one in the same. They are about finding ourselves and thus finding what God created us to be. God needs us in the world because God has chosen to use – no matter who young or old we are, no matter where we live or what we study or what our job is – God has chosen us to be in the world and God has chosen us to change the world through how we live our lives.

God, grant us ears to hear,

Eyes to see,

Wills to obey,

Hearts to love.

- Christina Rossett

The Spirit of the Lord

January 21, 2007

3 Epiphany, Year C

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for God has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. God has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19

These words were Jesus’ inaugural address, the touchstone vision of his ministry. He was reading Isaiah 61 – a text describing the vision and practice of Jubilee - a vision that weaves together economic and ecological justice, work and rest, liturgy and society. It invites the people of God to live in holy rhythms.

Many people today are exploring what it would mean to weave together ecology and economy, to have a life where work and rest were in balance and where we would all live in holy rhythms together seeking the betterment of the community and the world.

Jesus read these strong words from Isaiah to move the people, to get them to see a new light and a new way. This new way is not just to follow, but to live with the Holy Spirit. It is not a way that merely meant following everything Jesus did, but rather taking his life as an example and doing good in the world - living a holy life in the midst of chaos. This way is a way of life, a way of being, a way of embodying the Spirit and living out our full potential that we were given at our creation.

We hear the same from Paul in the letter to the Corinthians, but in a different way. The message of Paul is that we are the body of Christ together, called to do and live as Christ did and lived. However, Paul is reminding us that we are all called to do something as we work as the body of Christ, but not everything. He is writing to the church in Corinth, counseling them on how to work out differences in their new community telling them that each person should not try to do everything, but that they all have a place in their community and each place is as important as the other, therefore, they should all be doing something. God has constituted the church with a variety of gifts, services, ministries, offices and functions.

Those who knew Jesus understood that Jesus did not want each of them to become just like him, rather Jesus wanted them to live their lives in a true and holy way and that meant that you could not overlook those who were poor and oppressed, you could not disregard those who are different than yourself, and you could not push aside anyone. Jesus had all sorts of followers. Fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, sisters and brothers who fought over who was a better follower, people who lived on faith and were healed, people who did not believe at all, but still kept a close eye on him, people who loved him and people who hated him. They were all close to him as he did his ministry. He did not want them to change who they were, but he wanted their ways of living to change. He wanted them to turn around and see the way to living the true and holy life that they were called to live, the life God wanted them to live.

Doing these good deeds in the world, doing your part as the body of Christ is not about working your way to Heaven or working your way to salvation. That’s already done for you. What we do here on earth is about bringing the Kingdom of God here, where we are, right now. It is about bringing God into our midst in all that we do. That is one reason why Luke reminds us time and again of the Spirit. Just before this reading in Luke, Jesus is baptized and the Spirit of God descends upon him. Now, we are reminded again, as he heads off to his hometown that the Spirit is once again with him. It is with us, each and every one of us present here, each and every person in the world. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and guides us and helps us discover what part we can do to make the body of Christ whole.

For it to work, for us to be Christ in the world, for us to be able to go out and do Jesus’ work, we have to not only do our part, but also be there to support and encourage others to do their part, to give them time to heal when needed. When we work together, support each other, laugh and cry together, we are whole.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians reminds us that the world is alive with many different kinds of people and that we are to work together. Unity does not mean uniformity. Oneness does not mean sameness. We are to work together as one people with all of our differences and with all of our uniqueness. Unity does not exclude diversity, rather we can only speak of oneness if we recognize diversity and the tension that it brings as we try to work together in a true and holy way.

This last week, I got an email from an old friend of mine who is also a priest serving in Texas. On top of being a rector, he is a navy chaplain and has served time on the weekends mostly in the reserves. He just learned that in about a month, he will be deployed for six months and have to leave his wife, two kids and his parish behind for that time. Since I can remember, he saw serving those in the military and those who work as the police and firefighters as part of his calling. He and I have talked many times about how I could not do this - and he doesn’t understand how I can’t – and he doesn’t understand parts of my calling as well. Especially because I don’t see this as something that I could do, I’m glad that there are people like him who see this as their calling and are willing to leave loved ones behind to serve others overseas.

As I thought about us all working together to be Christ in the world, I also thought of my friends Sara and Aron and their little boy Eliot. About a month ago, I got a phone call telling me that their three year old, Eliot has leukemia. He has a “good kind” of cancer – the kind that can be healed and gone 85% of the time. They spent two weeks in the hospital, celebrated Christmas in the hospital, celebrated their daughter, Naomi’s birthday in the hospital having more tests. As they have struggled through this, people have come from far and near to help. Aron is a priest and other priests helped him out over Christmas so that he could be with his family on Christmas morning. People have circled around them giving and giving, serving and helping them in many different ways. Sara and Aron have also begun to help other kids in the hospital and created a network of people. I see this as the body of Christ working together in a beautiful way. Everyone is doing their part – not everyone is doing the same things – and their life is working as well as it can under the circumstances.

In the Gospel, we hear from Jesus that we are to serve those around us that are in need – to serve each other – to look out for each other. In Paul’s letter, we hear about functioning together in order to create a whole. We are all called to do something, yet how we do it will be different than those around us. We are meant to be different by God’s creation. We are all created differently, but in God’s image.

This is the beginning of a new semester for all of you. It is a time of starting again, and a time of continuing on the work you have already started. Our entire life is full of starting again and continuing on – that is our journey. On this journey we are called to find ourselves and to find our path with God. All of our paths will be different, and through the help of the Holy Spirit will all lead us to our Creator. At the beginning of this new time, I encourage you to take a step back for a moment and think about what you would say to the people you know well about what you want to do with your life. We just heard Jesus’ inaugural address – so what would yours be? What are your passions? What are the things that drive your life? What are you hoping to do in the world to make it a better place and bring us closer to the Kingdom of God here on earth? Our answers will be different, and that is the beauty of it. We are all part of the body of Christ, working together to create one beautiful, unique, amazing whole. So create away, begin again and continue what you are doing. You are doing God’s work in the world. You are Christ’s body in the world. You are in embodiment of the Holy Spirit and therefore you are a part of creating God’s kingdom here on earth. God’s blessings on the new semester, on new beginnings and on continuing your work. Amen.

Finals and the Coming of Christ

As I have been walking around these past few weeks, talking with students and overhearing them as they study in coffee shops, I would say that most, if not all of you are worried about how you are going to do in your classes. Some of what I have heard is anxiety over getting less than the grade that you want or failing a class all together or turning in a paper that your teacher hates and not being able to do anything about your grade or studying for a test and still not being prepared. I remember these feelings and unfortunately, there isn’t much that I can do to help take your anxieties away. So, when I looked at the lessons for today, I kind of laughed to myself. From Zephaniah we hear, “The Lord has taken away the judgment against you, he has turned away your enemies. The Lord is in your midst, you shall fear disaster no more.” From Philippians, we hear, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Do now worry about anything, but in everything prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.” So, according to these writers, you have nothing to worry about. God has taken away the judgments against you and you shall fear disaster no more, therefore rejoice and be glad.

Not so simple, I know. But in these words from today, may be a truth that will help you get through the next week and the rest of your life. But before I get into that, I want to share a story with you.

There once was a man who was caught in a terrible storm. It had been raining and raining and the land around him was beginning to flood. People in the houses around him told him that he should leave like they were. He told them that he was a man of faith and that God was going to save him from the storm. They said their goodbyes and his neighbors left one by one until he was the only one left on the block. The waters kept rising – so much so that he had to climb up to his attic. As he sat there looking out this window and praying to God, a boat came by and offered him a ride. He said no, that he was a person of faith and God was going to save him. The waters kept rising and soon, he had to get on the roof of his house. A helicopter came by to rescue him and he refused saying that he was a man of faith and that God was going to save him. The waters kept rising and soon, the man died from drowning. When he reached heaven, he angrily approached God and said, “Lord, I prayed to you for days to save me from the storm and you left me there to drown. Why didn’t you come and save me?” God replied, “I sent your neighbors, a boat and a helicopter – but you sent them all away. I did my part, but you didn’t do yours! You ignored all the help that I sent to you.”

In the Gospel of Luke, we once again hear about repentance. We have all hear this word many times. I preached about it last Sunday, and again on Wednesday. And for John the Baptist, it is more than just saying that you are sorry. I really like what theologian Frederick Buechner says about repentance. He says that it is “to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, “I’m sorry,” than to the future and saying, “Wow!” Repentance means changing your life so that you will be able to let the bad go and let the good in. Repentance is changing your life so that there is hope. John the Baptist is not telling those around him to give up who and what they are – rather, he tells them what they must change about their life style to turn their lives more toward God. He tells the crowd to help those around them by giving them coats or food. He tells the tax collectors, who made their living from overcharging people, to only charge them their proper amount. He tells the soldiers that they are to only do their jobs and that they are not to take money from them. John is telling them to change things that are doable and practical. He is telling them to change the way that they live so they can help others, because in helping others, and changing the pieces of their lives that they have control over, they will begin to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah.

So, how are you simultaneously preparing for the coming of Christ and the coming of your finals? You may not see how the two are connected but they are. The man in the boat thinks that God saving him means a lightning bolt or a ray of sunshine from heaven, rather than the practical help of those around him. Our life with God has to be practical. We can’t expect it to be like something from the movies, but we should expect it to be something from everyday life.

Preparing for finals many times means calming down enough to let the information sink in or to let the creativity flow. Preparing for God, and noticing God in our lives is much the same – calming down to let the world around us, the people around us, the beauty around us sink in and letting the creative energy of the Holy Spirit flow through us. We cannot say that God is over here in church, or in my family life and not also know that God is in the tests and papers, in the stress and anxiety. God is in everything that we do and is with us each step of the way. So, repenting means changing ourselves so that we are aware of God and in turn changing ourselves to come to know God in a new way in our lives.

I now want to give something to each of you. It is a small coin with the Episcopal Shield on one side and the beginning of the prayer of St. Francis on the other. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” The prayer of St. Francis is all about turning ourselves over to God so that we can do God’s work in the world. For you, right now, doing God’s work means learning so that you can then go out and make the world a better place. So, this week, as you are studying, take this into your hand and pray – you can pray the prayer of St. Francis, you can say a simple prayer – God, help me. You can just hold it in your hand and be still, knowing that God is with you, knowing that God is a part of all that you do.

Advent, this time of preparation is about focusing on your relationship with God and that relationship begins with prayer and by bringing God into your future. As you go to study, goof around, sleep, travel home – whatever it is that you will be doing over these next few weeks, remember to bring God with you in all that you do – “and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.” Amen.

Preparing Your Body, Mind and Soul

The church I just came from always had a Christmas Party on one of the Mondays leading up to Christmas. The week before the party, we had a secret Santa gift exchange where you would draw a name out of a hat and then shower that person with personal, small gifts the week before the party and then the night of, you were supposed to try and guess who was your secret Santa. This was always lots of fun as you were given things throughout the week and you shared with others what you had been given and tried to figure out who had put the small gift on your desk. Now, not everyone participated, it was an optional thing, and, there was one staff person who refused to participate and was quite vocal about how he thought it was wrong to celebrate and share gifts at all before the actual night of Christmas Eve. We loving called him Deputy BaHumBug of Deputy Bah for short. If things went missing around the church, he would blame it on secret Santa, if something went wrong, it was a secret Santa’s fault. This was all done with lots of joking and fun, and at the same time, there was always a serious tone in his voice and actions. He truly savored the time of Advent and preparation.

Each year, as the secret Santa exchange came up at staff meeting, we knew we could count on him for some moaning and groaning and commentary about how we should all wait until Christmas and how commercial everything had gotten. To some extent, he was right. The commercialization of Christmas has gone to an extreme. This year as I was trying to find a Halloween costume for my son, they already had the trees and lights up in the seasonal section of Target. When I saw this, I sighed and walked on. There will probably be a time when you can go to Target and get your back to school supplies and your fake Christmas tree all at the same time. And even through all of this commercialization and even though I often fear that we lose the real sense of Christmas, I love a good Christmas party. I often find that Christmas parties are a form of preparation for me. It is a time to be with others, to reflect on the past and to look to the coming year. It is a time to be with people and get out of my head. It is a time to be surrounded with the music of the season, the story of Christmas, the symbols and the celebration of Christmas. All of these things can help prepare me on my path of Advent as I continue to try to find Christ in my life - as I try to come back and repent and begin anew with my walk of faith and life with God. Christmas parties are a great time to do some of this preparation of the heart and soul, and they are not the only preparation that we have to do in order to be ready to receive the Christ child once again.

The reading for today begins with a long list of people – those people who were in some kind of position of power at that time. Then he tells us that, “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” God came and spoke to John and sent him into the region around the Jordan to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John quoted from the prophet Isaiah saying, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

The reading from Luke begins by telling us where we are and who is ruling in the world only to then point to where we are going and who is coming. It is a way of saying to those around him – we are here – and now we are going somewhere else, somewhere new, somewhere totally different and we get there through repentance and baptism. We get there by making a path to God, knocking down things that are our obstacles (which often times means ourselves) and making way for God to come into our lives.

The beginning of the story of John the Baptist is a reminds us that we have much to do to prepare for Christ coming into our lives. There isn’t a prescription or a set path, for everyone’s path to Christ is different, but one thing is the same. We all have to repent, to turn around and find Christ over and over again in order to live the life that God intends for us to live.

Now, if you are like me, the word sin, doesn’t necessarily translate. Are the little things that we do sins? Or is it just the big things that we know are really bad? Some of my clergy colleagues don’t want to use the word sin because they think that it doesn’t translate. There is some truth to that, especially if you grew up in a tradition where sin was talked about a lot. However, what is sin? To sin is to do something that brings you away from God. Sin does not have to be the big, bad, ugly actions such as murder or stealing. Sin is anything that does not allow us to live out the primary command from Jesus and that is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We are all sinful people and John knew that because he, too, was sinful. We all are, because we are human and to be human means to mess up.

John, was sent to preach to people about God in a new way – “to preach a baptism of repentance that led to the forgiveness of sins. John's baptism was symbolic. It represented a reorientation on the part of the sinner toward God. But it did not forgive sins in itself.” [i]

John instructs us to repent of anything and everything that might hinder ultimate faithfulness to Jesus. He invites us to make our crooked ways straight, to flatten all terrain, and to prepare space for the birth of Christ into our lives. John is not lecturing us on how and why we are all going to hell, but rather inviting us to repent and find the way to God again and again.

Advent is a time for us to all focus on what is taking us away from God and what we need to repent of in order that we will be ready for Christ to come again. Russell Pregeant says that, "The function of Advent is to focus on...the always-to-be-expected coming of Christ into our experience, and the specific contribution of repentance-texts is encourage reflection upon all the ways in which our lives do not in fact manifest the love and devotion that are appropriate to relationships with God and our neighbors."

Advent is a time for us to realign ourselves. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, it is a time when we are to prepare of God coming into our lives and make our path to God straight. All the low places in our lives need to be filled and every mountain, or all the road blocks need to be leveled off. We need to make our crooked ways and our rough places straight and smooth in preparation for Christ entering into our hearts and souls once again on Christmas. In doing this preparation work, we are ready to find God again and again. I challenge all of is in the next few moments of silence to lift up to God all those things that are separating us from God. All the worries, all the resentments, all the stress, all the emotions that separate us from people. And then know, that as we say the prayer of confession, that all those things that you just named are given to God – all those things done and left undone, all those things that cause us not to love, all those things that we have thought or said or done that have taken us away from God’s love and from the love of those around us – each and every one of these things is forgiven. Each and every one of these things is gone and you are able to then go forward on your path to God and find forgiveness and wholeness.

Let’s take a few moments of silence to name all of those things that we wish to give to God, knowing that we are forgiven and loved.

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[i] Larry Broding, word-sunday.com, Advent 2, Yr C, 2006

Depression and Hope

So I have spent most of the day in a funk. Both the ban on gay marriage/civil unions and the death penalty referrendum passed. The only thing that makes me feel a little bit better is that they didn't pass in my county. I'm pretty sure that the death penalty will not be made law as our new governor has promised not to do that, but the gay marriage/civil union ban is now in our constitution and that sickens me to think that we are limiting people's rightsjust because they either cannot get married or choose not to. (See sermon on marriage below.)

I am a bit hopeful that the country spoke loud and clear about who they wanted in leadership and what issues were important to them. I'm also hopeful after having lunch with some of the students here and seeing what the present and future leaders of our country have to offer. I'm trying to let the hope outweigh the depression, but I'm not sure that I'm being that successful. I'm praying lots and asking for God's guidance on next steps.

Voting

I went to the polls early this morning as my son woke us up at 6:15 a.m. As my husband and I walked down the street and turned into our polling place with Malcolm in the stroller, I got this tingling of pride and excitement that I was going to vote. I felt like a dork and then realized that it wasn't just that I was going to mark a few things on a ballot, but that I was doing my part to make the world what I think it should be and that we were bringing our son into the process at an early age.

There are big issues on the ballot, gay marriage and death penalty. I find my heart beating fast everytime I think about them because how these issues come out effects people around me. I don't believe that we should be in the business of killing people - we are not to be an eye for an eye kind of people, but a people who "Loves the Lord their God and loves their neighbor as themselves." We are to be a people who stand up for the rights of others rather than trying to restrict their rights.

God, be with us today as we vote that we may see the enormity of what we are doing. Guide us and give us grace to do your will in the world you have given us to care for and to nurture.

Saints, Kwame Gordon and Us

Saints are everywhere. In our chapel, we now have an icon of St. Francis and there are pictures and statues of him everywhere in this building. There are pictures of saints or references to saints everywhere in our church and in our culture. You may hear people talking of their “patron saint” which is a saint who has special affinity for that group and its members. For example, St. Francis is the patron saint of many things, but most widely known for being the saint of animals who need rescuing, of the environment, of families and of birds. When one prays, it is said that their prayers are considered more likely to be answered by their patron saint. There is a patron saint for just about anything. There are patron saints for bakers and bikers, for safe driving and for sports, for sore eyes and sore throats, for engineers and scientist, for musicians and for historians, for journalists and for librarians, for prisoners and for peace. There are 17 patron saints for students and 4 patron saints for colleges.

I was talking with my sister, who is not particularly religious at all, on the phone and told her that I had to go because I had to write my sermon. She asked what I was preaching on – and I told her it was All Saints’ Sunday and, so I was preaching on the saints. She said, oh, I have a story for you. My mother-in-law is in the midst of redoing her kitchen and is having a really hard time with the workers and the plans. So, I went online and sent her St. Thomas, the patron saint of builders and construction workers. She emailed me back and said that she had just gotten a $2000 credit on her bill because they ordered too much tile and she owes it all to my sister’s email and St. Thomas.

Why do we celebrate All Saints’ Day? Why do people pay attention to saints? What do saints have to do with us in our lives today?

We celebrate All Saints’ Day because in the early days the Christians were accustomed to celebrating the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. They would gather at their graves to witness to the gospel and to commemorate their death. Because there came to be so many days that they were venerating saints and martyrs, they came to join all of them into one feast, which is now known as All Saints’ Day. This is the day that we celebrate, remember and honor all those who have gone before us. It is the day in which we pause and reflect, look back and remember those who have inspired us, those who have led our way, those who have lived lives of faith no matter what the cost. Saints were ordinary people just like us. They were people who lived and died, they had families, went to school, lived in communities, and they had to deal with every day things just like you and I do.

So what makes them saints? Robert Ellsberg says, “The saints are those who, in some partial way, embody - literally incarnate - the challenge of faith in their time and place. In doing so, they open a path that others might follow." Saints are those people who have lived their lives in a way that others are inspired and encouraged by their actions and their faith. One of my favorite authors, Joyce Rupp, says, “I think of “saints” as not only those women and men who have been canonized by the church, but all people whose lives reflect the goodness of God. Saints are not perfect people. They have their faults, and weaknesses, their struggles and difficulties…yet the saints are people of integrity. They have a central focus at the core of their lives [and that is] the love of God.” (Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary, p. 32).

Saints are not just those who are put into a book of Saints, or put onto a calendar. Saints are also those in our own lives that have stirred us to become something greater and to go a little deeper into our lives with God.

Every All Saints’ Day, I carry with me in my heart all those who I know who have died. The list is long and it includes family members, friends and colleagues, and others that I have never met, but that have inspired me through writing, art, music or in how they have lived their lives. This year, I bring with me a young man named Kwame Gordon who was in my youth group in Pasadena. He was 16 years old when died on June 2 of this year as he was shot down in gang violence in Los Angeles. He was not a member of a gang, he was a young man of peace and life and laughter and love who got caught up in something bigger than him. He was quiet, he had lots of friends, he did well in school, and his death was senseless and tragic. His death rocked our community, especially the teens and young adults that had grown up with him. And his death reached farther than just those who had known him. Kids that hadn’t known him, or just knew of him, were hurt and touched by his death too. We had a gathering for all those who wanted to talk about his death and for those who wanted to grieve. What came up for most kids as they were talking and crying was their deep sadness that one of their peers was gone. One of them – had been shot and killed and for what? We talked. We cried. We sat in silence as we thought about Kwame and what he meant to each and every one of us in that room. At the end of the evening, one of the girls said that the best way to remember him and to help this not happen again was to carry his memory with us and to remember who he was and what he stood for in his life. So, we all lit candles before leaving and said aloud what we would remember Kwame for and how he had inspired our lives. As I remember Kwame, I remember his quiet faith and how he served his community in a variety of ways.

In a few moments, during the prayers of the people, there will be silence for you to add names of those who have died in your life. It could be a recent death, it could be a death that happened years ago. I invite you to name aloud those people in your life who have died so that they may be honored and celebrated here, today, in the midst of this community, in the midst of your peers and your faith community.

Whether we like it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known because when someone comes into our lives, they become a part of us. I find myself doing things and smiling because it is something my uncle would have done, or that my grandmother inspired me to do, or that my friend Mike taught me. We carry people with us in spirit because they have become a part of our soul. This is how people survive long after they have been gone. So I invite you to honor those who have changed your life just because they were in it. I invite you to name those who have died who have inspired you, given you courage, given you love, given you hope, or given you a gift in your life. The saints are people who help us find our potential and our direction on our journey. Let us honor them today and as our collect said at the beginning of the service, “give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all righteous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.”

Bartimaeus - Faith - Doubt

Sermon from 10.29.06

Bartimaeus, the blind beggar sitting on the side of the road said, yelled and screamed, until he caught Jesus’ attention, then said, “Teacher, let me see again.” People around him were telling him to hush, to keep it down, they didn’t want to disturb Jesus who was coming by with his disciples. But he persisted until he was heard.

What would it be like to be Bartimaeus? A blind man left to beg on the side of the road, waiting for money, waiting for someone to have compassion, waiting for anyone to care about him, to take mercy on him. In Jesus’ time, those who were handicapped were looked down on as the lowest of the low. No one was there for them, they had no one to care for them or even want to be around them. After all he had been through, he knew enough, that he had to get Jesus’ attention. What did it take for Bartimaeus to be healed - for him to see again? It took FAITH.

He says to Jesus, “My teacher, let me see again.” My friends, this could be something that any of us could say. We have all been blinded by what we choose not to see, we have been blinded by what the world doesn’t want us to see, and we can become blinded if we don’t look beyond our comfort zone. Bartimaeus was sitting in the street – he had been cast aside, and had to yell above the crowd to even get noticed and once he finally did, he asks to see again. Our blindnesses are many, money, politics, stress, not enough time, not looking deep enough, etc. We have to ask God to help us see, to help heal our blindnesses.

For Bartimaeus, all it took was FAITH. For us, it takes Faith.

Sounds simple enough, just have faith and you will be healed, your life will be made whole again. Jesus said, "Go, your faith has made you well." But what is faith?

Well, for some help on this, I turned to the good old dictionary - Websters says that it is "unquestioning belief, complete trust of confidence in a thing, deity, or person." To me this definition makes faith seem impossible because of the concise, absolute language. Faith is not impossible, but it does take work and it is not something that you get and always have. The only way to know faith is to experience it - and to experience that over and over again. Faith does not come easy, but it is not impossible. Bartimaeus' faith made him well, and it will do the same for all of us if we let it work and if we work at it each day.

So what does it take to work at your faith? For each person it is different, and for each person it is an experience that is lived.

In the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there is a great example of faith. If you haven’t seen the movie, here is a brief overview. Indiana Jones and his father, Dr. Jones, are on a quest to find the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus drank from at the last supper. It has been his father’s lifelong goal to have this relic. They reach the place where it is hidden, and discover that getting the grail will be more difficult than they thought. Dr. Jones has been shot and injured, so Indy must go on by himself to find the grail, because it is said to have healing powers and contain the key to eternal life. His father needs him to find this cup so that he may be healed. To get to the grail, Indy must pass three tests, going through a sort of maze. In this maze, he must become a penitent man who kneels before God, he must follow the word of God to move on to the next place and he must take a step of faith into the unknown. He passes the first two tests, but with time running out and with people chasing him, he has to summon all of his courage and step out in faith into a chasm that seemingly has no way across. On the other side of this chasm lies the grail. He takes a deep breath, and steps out to find that there is indeed a way across, it was just hidden from the human eye. His step of faith, lead him to the grail and led him closer to God.

Franz Werfel, a writer and a Jew during World War II said, "For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible." Faith cannot prove or be proven. It has to live, it has to grow, and it has to be lived out through doubts and struggles, through joy and belief. It takes faith to step out into the unknown, it takes faith to love and to live, it takes faith to serve, and like Bartimaeus, it takes faith to call to the Christ and be made well.

Faith is not easy to understand, but maybe it would help us all if we stopped thinking of faith as a noun and started thinking of it as a verb. It is a process not a possession. It is not something that you are born with and always have. It is something that you truly have to work for and work on. Faith is not being sure about where you are going, but going anyway. It is in our doubting and in our trusting that we come to discover faith. Belief is an element of faith, as is doubt. If we did not believe that we were going to make it from moment to moment in our lives how would our lives be? But we also must doubt and wonder about the future and the present and who God is and where God is in our lives in order to come to believe. Faith cannot happen without Doubt.

In a new TV show called, The Monastery, five guys go to live in a Benedictine monastery in the middle of New Mexico. Though watching a deeply religious group of men pray, sing, and walk the halls in silent reflection may not seem to make for good television, when you add a recovering addict, an ex-con, an aspiring priest, an injured Iraqi war vet, and a cynical paramedic, things get turned upside down for many of the participants – men and monks alike. Each of the five men are having a personal crisis and each is going there to supposedly find direction, to seek God, to find the faith that they have lost or that they have never found. Now, I’ve only watched one show, and it appears that some are having an easier time stepping out in faith than the others. Some of the men are constantly bumping up against the rules of the monastery, testing the monks, and seeing what they can get away with. They are testing and questioning and pushing because they are not ready to take that leap of faith. They are not ready to call out for help at least not yet. I think it will be interesting to see if they are all able to, at least at some point, take a leap of faith – even if it’s a tiny one.

I wonder if Bartimaeus ever doubted his decision to call to Jesus when he and the disciples came through. I wonder if he did not fear what Jesus would do and what may happen to him. Bartimaeus wondered and doubted just as we all do, but he believed and took the step forward. He took the step into the unknown and had faith in God, in Jesus, and in the Spirit. God did not hide from Bartimaeus and God does not hide from us. God is waiting for us to doubt and believe, God is waiting for us to go places that we have never been, God is waiting for us to leap from our comfortable places and feel the void in between so that we can learn and experience more of ourselves and our relationship with God. It is in the unknowing that we come to know, and it is in the experience that we become experienced. Faith will make you well, it will make us all well if we take the chance to explore and come to know ourselves and God in a new way.

Faith made Bartimaeus well, let God work in your life and see what happens. I have been surprised by faith before and I am sure that you have been too. I am convinced that the future will surprise us just as well. Faith in God is not easy, nor is it impossible. It is worth the struggle because within faith you will find more than what you thought. Doubt and believe. Step out in faith, and see what you might find.

All Saints'

I found the quote as I was doing sermon prep and wanted to share.

"The saints are those who, in some partial way, embody - literally incarnate - the challenge of faith in their time and place. In doing so, they open a path that others might follow."
- Robert Ellsberg

What Must You Do To Enherit Eternal Life?

Mark 10:17-31

So, I just started to do this blog with some of my other friends that are priests. It’s called Ask The Priest.com. It’s a site that people can go to, submit a question, and one of us will answer it. It is “An Episcopal/Anglican blog where questions are welcome and assumptions are challenged…” The first question I got was this… “After reading the parable of the talents and the saying of a rich man and the eye of a needle. I am bit confused. Can a Christian be rich? How does one marry his views to commercialism?”

After my friend David, the owner of the blog sent this my way, I thanked him – with a note of sarcasm in my voice. This is one question that points to a subject that most people don’t want to deal with – especially in church. Money. Jesus talks lots about money. My personal favorite is the story of him turning the tables over in the temple. Money – most preachers would rather talk about sex, or good works, or anything else than the subject of money, but it is pretty clear from all the attention that Jesus gave money that it is an important subject. Why is that? Can a rich person get into heaven? What difference does it make if you are rich or poor as long as you are a good person? What does money have to do with your soul?

In today’s Gospel lesson, a man comes up to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He tells Jesus that he has kept the commandments – you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother. Jesus looks at him and loves him for that. Jesus acknowledges that this man has led a good life and he loves him for that. But, this man has only kept the commandments that have to do with his relationships with other people. Jesus knows that there is a piece missing – what about his relationship with God? This man puts his trust in his own good doings and wealth and achievements. He puts a lot of weight on what he has and what he does. Jesus knew that this man was letting his wealth get in the way of his relationship with God. So, he told him sell everything, give the money to the poor and follow him. The man was shocked. How could he do this? He couldn’t get rid of everything! Jesus hadn’t told Zaccheaus to do this, he hadn’t told some of his other rich followers to do this! So why is Jesus telling him to get rid of everything? The man left, shocked and sad. We never know if he did as Jesus commanded or not.

The Gospel moves on to the teaching of the disciples about how difficult it is for those who have wealth to get into the kingdom of God. “It is easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Now, we know that this could never happen, that is why the disciples are astonished and say – so no one can be saved? They can’t imagine what he is talking about? We can’t do anything to be saved? What? All of this that we have done means nothing? What are we to do? Jesus reminds them, that mortals cannot do this, but it is for God to do. It is through God’s grace and love that we enter into heaven. So, why must the rich man sell everything, give all the money to the poor and follow Jesus? Because he did not have a relationship with God – he did not feel God’s grace in his life – he did not let God guide his life, rather he guided his own life with his money and his possessions.

Now, in many cultures, even our own culture today, having money can be seen as a sign of God’s favor. If you take preachers like Joel Osteen, he tells you that there are seven steps to making yourself a better person and in doing that, you will get all that is coming to you. There are preachers out there that are called Prosperity preachers, those who preach prosperity and happiness without dealing with some of the difficult teachings of Jesus. In our Gospel today, Jesus clearly tells this man that he is thinking too much of himself and what he has or hasn’t done. Jesus is saying, get over yourself, give up the things that are getting in your way and begin your relationship with God.

If we were to go to Jesus and ask the same question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Our answer from Jesus may be different. What gets in your way in your relationship with God? What would Jesus say? Give up your worries? Stop your addictive behaviors? Quit your job? Get rid of those meaningless things in your life and give your time, talent and treasure to those who need it and follow the way of Jesus? What is getting in your way?

I have two friends that I met in seminary, Kevin and Rosa Lee. They have become like family to me. When they first came to seminary, they were just getting by – Kevin couldn’t hold down a job, Rosa Lee was in school full time as was their oldest son and their daughter was in high school. They had enough money, but were not rich as you and I would think of someone being rich. Then, Kevin found a niche. He and Rosa Lee and a few other people we knew started a company and from that company, they made literally millions. For a long time, they struggled with their wealth. They didn’t want it to change them. They didn’t know what to do with it. They were happy that they knew that their kids would be set for life AND they were scared that their family would become lazy, depend on the money and forget all the things they had stood for and against before becoming rich. They were also scared that their relationships with people would change – would people use them for money? Would their friends change? I have to say, they worked hard to figure out what to do with that money and what it meant for their lives. They set up a foundation. They are working with Jeffrey Sachs on poverty and disease. They are working on education in the church and in other areas of the world. They are giving money to things that need money and they are helping to fund things that need to be funded. They are not storing up their wealth, but they are using it to do God’s work here in the world. To bring God's kingdom here on hear

William Loader says, “Following Jesus means engaging the tradition and engaging life in a way that makes a difference.” So how does my life make a difference? How does your life make a difference? What difference does money play in your life.

Jesus preaches so much about money because it is easy to let money take over our lives. Now, I know that most of you are college students and don’t have much money, so you may be thinking, this has nothing to do with me. But it does. Regardless of how much money we do or don’t have, money can lead us though our lives rather than letting God lead us through our lives. Jesus realized that money seems to be the one big thing that gets in the way of people’s relationship with God. So, why is it hard for people with riches to enter the kingdom of God? Edward F. Markquart, a preacher from Seattle came up with these three reasons.

“It is easy to fall in love with money. Money and wealth is seductive and very easy to fall in love with. We become addicted to money and material possessions and like most addictions, we initially don’t realize that we are addicted.

“Wealth creates a false sense of security. We think that wealth will protect us from the disasters of life and we find out that it doesn’t.

“Money often makes people more selfish, so that the purpose of time, talents and energy is to serve ourselves rather than others, to preserve our wealth rather than share the wealth that God has entrusted to us.

He goes on to say that, “A common mistake of American Christians is to forget that we live in one of the wealthiest nation in the world and that our standard of living is higher than 95% of people in the globe. Here in America, it is easy to think of “the rich” as being the top 1% of American society rather than the middle class which is wealthier than 95% of Christians living on this planet Earth. We think that “the rich” are people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Paul Allen whose assets are listed in the billions. We think of “the rich” as being the 538 billionaires listed in the Forbes magazine in 2004. When we have such thoughts, this text is no longer about us and our own lives but about “them, THE RICH people in America, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Warren Buffet, or the professional athletes or movie stars. This text is about THEM, not me.” 1

Well, this text is about us, for we are wealthier that we can imagine. You are going to school, you eat and sleep in safe places, you are able to do many things that you want to – travel, go out with friends, buy books, etc. We have a lot. I have a lot, and it’s easy to forget that because we often can focus on what we don’t have. So again, I ask, what is getting in the way with your relationship with Jesus? What is getting in the way so that God is not able to reach you? Is it money? Is it the lack of money? Is it what we are spending out time on?

So to answer the question, can a rich person get into heaven? Can a rich person be saved? Yes. Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man who put Jesus’ body in the tomb, Nicodemus, Joseph’s friend, was a member of the wealthy establishment – all of these people were rich and all were saved. God can save any of us, but we have to be in relationship, we have to be in conversation, we have to be ready to give up those things that get in our way in order to follow Jesus. Christians can be rich and follow Jesus, we can be poor and follow Jesus – the point is that we have to follow Jesus and not our money or our lack of money. We cannot be faithful followers of our money, our possessions and our wants, but rather we have to be faithful followers of God and God’s desire for our lives and our souls. What must we do to inherit eternal life? Look deeply, pray about it and follow God’s lead in your life. The answer will come.

1. Edward F. Markquart, Sermons from Seattle

Jesus, Marriage and Discrimination

Here is my sermon from 10.8.06. Readings for Sunday, Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16.

Creation. Today we hear an account of the creation in Genesis. But if we go back to the beginning of Genesis, we can hear God’s pronouncement over and over that “it was good.” God created something and God saw that it was good, and was pleased with what had been created. In the account of the creation story we hear today, we see that God is not pleased with only having one person. God had just created the entire earth and saw the first human standing there and realized that something was missing, that there was something else needed. God was not quite ready to call it “good” yet. God knows that it is not good for us to be alone – now granted – Adam was not really alone – God was there, which is pretty big and there were animals all around him, but God knew that there was a need for another human, for another person here on earth to relate to, to love, to be with.

The core of the creation story is not about roles or who should do or not do what, but it is really about what it means to be a human being. It is about relationship. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be married or be in a relationship, but rather that at the core of what it means to be human is that we are made to be with other people. Even monks and nuns are in relationship because they live in community with one another. We are created to be in relationship, in community. We can only grow into who we are created to be with and through each other. This growth happens in a variety of ways, but it cannot happen alone.

This is where the Gospel reading comes in as it talks about marriage and divorce. I have to be honest that most clergy I know, including myself, dread the Sunday that this comes up because it is such a touchy subject. My parents are divorced, my dear friend got divorced at the age of 25, my brother-in-law is in the midst of getting a divorce. In one way or another, I’m sure that most of us, if not all of us have been touched by divorce or know people who have been touched by divorce. Sometimes it is an amicable split, but I find that those are the exceptions to the rule. Most divorces are full of anger and hurt, fighting and disappointment to say the least. It is the dissolving of a relationship and that is painful. Yet sometimes, divorce, even though painful, brings hope and new life to a person.
So, why is Jesus telling us that we cannot divorce and remarry and if we do we are breaking the law and we are breaking God’s will for us?

I believe that Jesus is not calling us to hopelessly high standards, rather Jesus is calling us to a high vision of what could be and what we should work toward. We are human, which means we will mess up, we will fall and have to get back up and try again. That is written right into the baptismal covenant! Jesus, here and elsewhere in the Bible is teaching us, showing us, helping us see what God wants and is also teaching us that when we fall short of that, we can come back and try again and again. I believe that is why Mark tags on the story of the children being blessed by Jesus. He is showing us again that what we think might be okay, ignoring the least of these – ignoring the people that are other than – ignoring or displacing those who do not fit in – is not part of God’s call to us. As people of God we have to continue to work toward the commandment that Jesus gave us – to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This goes for us, it goes for kids, it goes for everyone, everywhere.

The culture around Jesus at this time was one of contract marriages. It was about joining two families together to share everything with one another. It was more of a business deal than a relationship. It was also mostly about procreation because people did not live to be very old. So, in order to carry on, children had to be born and help out on the farm, around the house, etc. until it was time for them to marry. This is a totally different understanding of marriage than we have in our culture today.

This summer, I officiated at two weddings of good friends of mine. As I think back on those weddings, I was reminded that in this culture, we are not marrying out of contract or out of a business deal. Most of us, if we choose to marry, do so out of love, out of that deep need to be with someone and to love that person.

At one of these weddings, I met a couple who had been dating for years and was pretty clear that they did not want to be married, but rather to live into their relationship. I asked them if they were scared of the commitment, which is usually the case when people decide not to get married. They assured me that, no – they were deeply committed to one another and were thinking about having a party to honor that commitment, much as you would with a wedding. Other people that I know well have decided not to get married because their friends who are gay or lesbian cannot get married. They have said to me and many others that until everyone can receive the sacrament of marriage, they will stand by them by not getting married either, and will commit themselves to a relationship with each other rather than get married in the traditional sense.

In about a month’s time, we are all being asked to vote on a referendum that many people are calling “a ban on gay marriage,” but if you read the language, it is much more than that. This would write into the constitution that only a man and a woman can marry AND that a legal status identical or similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals will not be recognized. This is pure and simple prejudice against a certain part of our community. This would be using the constitution to limit people’s rights rather than securing their rights or giving them equal rights. You many not agree with gay and lesbian people getting married, and you and I can debate that later, but what is at issue here is people being singled out and treated as less than simply because they choose not to marry, but to remain in committed relationships. This means that if a couple, be they gay or straight, decides not to get married for whatever reason, cannot enter into a civil union and have the same benefits of health care, life insurance, etc. as the rest of us. This is pure and simple discrimination and we cannot let that be written into our constitution. Each time that the government as tried to limit the rights of the people, it has been stopped or done away with – slavery, slaves being treated as property, therefore they could not legally marry or own land or vote, women not being able to vote, the list could go on and on. Limiting our very being is not what God intends.

God’s love for us, each and every one of us is an all inclusive love. Jesus ate with the outcasts, he healed people who most would simply ignore, he talked to people of a different culture and did not worry about the laws, he showed us time and again that God’s love is not about exclusion and judgment, but rather about love and acceptance, about welcoming the least of these, about welcoming everyone, even if they don’t fit into our narrow definitions of what is or isn’t acceptable. What we can get from today’s readings is that God’s intention is for us to be together.

Relationships – be they marriages, or committed relationships, or living in a community like monks and nuns, or any other kind of relationship – they are truly about what you can do, who you can be together and as individuals. “At its heart, marriage is not a convenient human institution for protecting property, regulating sexuality, and safeguarding children.” [The Rev. James Liggett[i]] Marriage and relationships are about love and dedication; they are about growth through all the joys and struggles that they bring our way. Marriage is often painted to be a rosy, easy thing but it is not. Marriage and relationships are hard work and no matter who you are with, there are going to be problems, there are going to be things that you fight about, things that you disagree on. The real question is, who do you want to work on these problems with? Who do you want to struggle with in order to make this relationship work?

I believe that what Jesus was getting at in today’s Gospel was not about creating a law against divorce, but rather that he wanted people to focus on the relationship, on the marriage, on the commitment, before they began even thinking of separating from one another. God’s intention is for us to be together, and that is the focus of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus taught us to love, to take care of each other, to live in peace, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and when we fall short on these things, we are to keep coming back to God and working on attaining these goals.

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[i] The Rev. James Liggett has been rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Big Spring, Texas, since 1994. He is a native of Kansas and a graduate of the University of Houston and the Episcopal Divinity School. He has served parishes in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Father Liggett and his wife Kathleen have a 20-year-old son.

In the Beginning

It is the beginning of my new blog that will keep you informed about what I'm up to and where I'm going. Please stay tuned as I add sermons, thoughts and updates from my life as a priest.