Full access, No exceptions August 25th 2013 Proper 16 Yr C

On August 25, 2013 I was honored to be the preacher at the dedication service for the completion of the Reaching New Heights campaign at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Nativity, in Clarendon Hills, IL. Holy Nativity is the church in which I grew up. 
+Two events in 1979 were very important in the life of the Church of the Holy Nativity, events that have shaped this community for the past 34 years: The liturgical renewal and re-focus brought through the ratification of the 1979 BCP, which was monumental for all Episcopalians, and the birth of John Dempesy Reis which should have been monumental for all of Christendom but was especially meaningful to the Dempesy family!
Today these two events come full circle.
The prayer book revision may be a blip on the radar to some of you, to others it doesn’t even register, but for some of us, long time “cradle” Episcopalians of a certain age, the ratification of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer was a watershed moment. Moving from the 1928 Prayer Book to the 1979 Prayer Book was a change not only of language, but of theology. The theology of the ministry of the baptized. Now the focus of our faith is on how we, through the power given to us at our baptism, are the ministers of the church. It is up to us—all of us not just the ordained people set aside to do some of the nuts and bolts work of the church---to spread the Good News of Christ, to be the hands and feet, eyes, ears and mouth of God here on earth.
We are all called to walk in the footsteps of our Lord, refusing to rest until peace, equality, justice and dignity is available to all people everywhere, no exceptions. Nowhere in our liturgy is this more profoundly stated than in the Baptismal Covenant, recited on major feast days of the church year and at each and every baptism. You had a baptism last week so no doubt these words are still ringing in your ears:
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
Well today, with God’s help and a lot of perseverance and generosity you are respecting the dignity of every single human being, No Exceptions. Today you are continuing, here in this place, the healing Jesus undertook 2000 years ago in the temple, on the Sabbath Day. Today your work as agents of God on this earth, as foot soldiers of Christ, has reached its pinnacle. For today you are healing the hurts of years of exclusion and not quite full membership for anyone who is unable to climb steps. Today the focus of that renewed faith of 1979: NO EXCEPTIONS EVER has come to fruition.
On May 5, 1979 John Dempesy Reis was born. His wasn’t an easy birth and as a result he suffered a neurological injury that eventually took away his ability to walk or talk in the usual way.  As John grew, the inaccessibility of this place became profoundly evident: there wasn’t an elevator, there wasn’t a bathroom to accommodate his wheelchair so...John  was carried...down to Sunday School, up to the bathroom.
Imagine the indignity of it all…..
  Clearly, this building wasn’t matching up to the people’s vision of no exceptions.  But, even though you couldn't make the necessary changes to this building then, the people of CHN worked hard to include John in the full life of the church---he was a crucifer, he was a special category of acolyte (lavabo boy) he was front and center each and every Sunday, flashing that magnetic smile and offering his abundant hugs. But in spite of everyone’s efforts, John and everyone who used a walker or wheelchair was not able to fully participate in the life of this place. 99 % of the people at CHN entered through a different door than those who cannot climb steps. And the undercroft, the downstairs, has been off limits to John and others for years.
Today, finally, the brick and mortar of this place has caught up to its spirit. Today the dignity of every human being—no exceptions—is a reality at CHN. John, along with Christine Massie and Kathryn Brackett and anyone else who can’t stand up straight on their own, have, in their hearts, been healed.
Our Baptismal Covenant serves as the marching papers we all need to be Christ in this world, to fully and truly love your neighbor as yourself.
This project has made your promise to respect the dignity of every human being a hard and fast reality.
Because of this project John, Christine, Kathryn and all people who cannot stand and walk straight are able to enter this place with dignity and inclusion.
Because of this project you have taken on the mantel of the prophet Jeremiah, accepting God’s work through you in this place and beyond. For YOU, the Church of the Holy Nativity said, “who we are is not represented in different entrances for different people,” so you took a long, hard, deep and honest look at who you were and who you wanted to be and then set about to be who it was you envisioned.
With this project you have spoken loud and clear that everyone—NO EXCEPTIONS—is welcome in this place and that everyone --NO EXCEPTIONS-- has a voice and a vision to share.
Today as you cut the ribbon on the Reaching New Heights campaign you, along with Jesus, say, "the only way we can reach new heights is if everyone, NO EXCEPTIONS, is allowed equal and full access to all we do here at the corner of 55th Street and Richmond in Clarendon Hills Illinois."
For some of you this project may not have had that much to do with universal access, it may have been more about updating the bathrooms, expanding the kitchen and embellishing what has already been done to create a more user friendly space. For some of you all this stuff about full and complete access may not resonate as it does for my family. But today, in the sight of God, with a great cloud of witnesses including Ralph Brown, Ellouise Ford, Alan and Jean Sims, Ruthanne and Bob Mason, Jean Ellison, Nancy Handke and John’s grandpa, George, cheering you on, you, through this project, have provided full and free access to the Holy for all who desire it. No exceptions.
And for that I say, Thank you and Amen.

Proper 14 Yr C The Missing Piece Aug 11, 2013

Today we baptize Eyob Jack Marshall [at the 10:30]. Who doesn’t love a baptism? Especially the baptism of a 7 year old, new to this community but who, along with his mother Kelly, is quickly becoming a shining light among us.
Baptisms are GREAT DAYS.
Last month I began the practice of writing a letter to the about to be baptized as my sermon for that day. Today, with the permission of Eyob’s mama, Kelly, I share with you the details of how they became a family through a letter to Eyob from God.
My dear Eyob,
What a wonderful day this is—with the prayers of this community, the promises of your mama, your sponsors and this congregation, with a little splash of water and the sign of the cross in chrism, you are being marked, sealed as one of my beloved. Forever. No matter what..
Of course you’ve always been beloved. Today is just a ceremony to acknowledge what has been true since the moment of your birth: you are loved, forever and always.
It’s interesting how families come together. Throughout your life you may hear people talk about what a family “should” look like, how a family “should” be constructed. Pay that no heed my child. “People” don’t make a family, LOVE does. Look around your school, your neighborhood, this church, your mama’s friends…. you’ll see families made up of all sorts of people…a wide array —people of no color and people of some color, people who were born into the family and people who were brought into the family through adoption, two parents, one parent, same gender parents and different gendered parents, grandparents raising grandbabies, aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends all taking a turn at being the safe and steady adult all children deserve and need.
If anyone ever tells you that you don’t belong someplace remind them that we are all, as was just read from the book of Genesis, children of Abraham. I wasn’t kidding when I told Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than all the stars in the sky. Later on tonight, when it gets nice and dark, look up to the sky. All those stars? They represent all the brothers and sisters in God you now have.
It’s a whole lot, Eyob!!!
From today and forever, you will never ever be alone.
Jesus, (you’re getting to know him, I think you’ll really like him) said in that reading from Luke,
 “where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”
5 years ago you and mama found your treasure—each other!
It was September 18, 2008, Mama and her friend Joyce traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mama was one of nine families there that week. Families all looking for their missing piece. Mama saw you right away---you were so sweet and so so tiny, weighing only 20 lbs at age 2 ½ and she knew she had found her missing piece. Mama pulled that orange car out of her backpack and the two of you began to play.  As the car rolled back and forth between you, I anointed you as a family--for you had found your treasure in each other.  Your hearts were full to overflowing and a family was born. As your mama said you were mama and Eyob as if you had always been. Here’s a secret….you always were---sometimes it just takes a while for people to find their true treasure…but when they do, they always know it. Just like you and Mama.
The thing about love—the big type of love that is Me---that type of Love comes in all shapes and sizes and is expressed in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it’s expressed by saying good-bye.  I know how brave and loving your birth mother was to do the hardest thing she ever had to do so that you and mama could receive the greatest gift ever. Today we honor and thank your birth mother for her kindness, her courage and her faith---in me, in you and in Mama. Today Mama is fulfilling a promise she made to your birth mother in having you baptized. She had never been baptized, but had always wanted to be. Today as the waters of baptism flow over you, please know that the waters of baptism are also flowing over her.
After your birth mother and mama talked there was a ceremony of candles. The birth families lit a candle and then the adoptive families lit their candles from the flame of the birth family candles, symbolizing the passing of the responsibility to love and care for the child forever to the adoptive parent.
 Today there is a great big candle lit in the church, do you see it? That flame is the flame of Love. It is the flame of Me. That flame tells you that no matter where you go, matter how happy you are or sad you feel, no matter what , I will always be with you…for wherever you are? Wherever you are, there will be MY treasure, a treasure of that Love which passes all understanding, the love of a mother for a child, the love of a mama for her Eyob, the love of Me for my Son and the love of everyone gathered here today for one another.
As you are washed with the waters of baptism, Eyob, remember that you are Loved beyond all measure. Always and Forever.
Amen.

Distracted by Want Aug 4, 2013 Proper 13 Yr C

   When I was working with cocaine-exposed children and their mothers, we had to keep a very tight reign on the number of toys in the children's playroom. Too many fun shiny toys would completely overwhelm the children, leading to a quick meltdown. I think the theory holds true for all children, but especially for these cocaine-exposed kids, too much "stuff" overwhelmed them and led them to distraction.

I often feel that way about life. Life is full of stuff.. Stuff that needs our attention. Stuff that distracts, consumes and at times, overwhelms us.

It seems the more complicated our lives become, the less connection we have with God.

Riches on earth pull us away, distract us from riches in heaven.

The riches, the STUFF of life pulls so many of us into the rat race of the here and the now that we forget the forever and the eternal. Riches in this life often make us forget our richness in God.

This Gospel is about being rich toward self vs being rich toward God.

How rich are you toward God?

Okay time for a couple of disclaimers.

First, Having stuff, being wealthy, is not a bad thing. Second, we're all wealthy. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and to the rest of the world we all, even the poorest among us, are wealthy. So even though it's tempting to, while listening to the parable of the rich fool, as this story is known, to say “well if I was rich I wouldn't behave that way...” we can't say that  because we are rich.

But lots of us don’t feel rich. Many of us feel poor. Which, actually, is at the heart of this Gospel. The man in the parable wants to relax to eat drink and be merry. And he’ll do that just as soon as he builds enough barns. But there’s the rub, he’ll never have enough barns. Because he’ll never feel like he has enough…because he isn’t filling his barn with God, he’s filling his barn with self. He isn’t filling his barn with hope, he’s filling his barn with fear. He isn’t filling his barn with true abundance, he’s filling his barn with a terror of scarcity.

The having of stuff isn't the problem according to Jesus, the distraction it causes, is.

In the gospel the man who wants Jesus to tell his brother to be fair with the family inheritance has just lost his father. Inheritances only come into play when someone has died and in this case this man, and his brother, have lost their father. But does he come to Jesus seeking  solace? No he comes to Jesus seeking righteous justification. He comes to Jesus to make sure he gets what's his. He comes to Jesus about stuff. About external, material things. He comes to Jesus distracted by “want.”

He’s not looking to fill a spiritual emptiness, he’s looking to fill his barn.

Having stuff isn't bad. Wanting stuff isn’t bad. Getting distracted by the stuff , being derailed by the want is.

Being rich in cash and goods isn't bad, letting cash and goods block our connection to God, is.

Being rich isn't bad, being poor toward God is.

Are we rich toward God or are we poor toward God?

I feel rich when I find myself in silence. No dogs barking, no phone ringing, no email dinging, no sirens, no honking horns.

I feel rich toward God when Pete and I clean the barn and mow the grass up at the ranch.

I feel rich toward God when I put everything else aside and stand behind that altar, celebrating the Eucharist

I feel rich toward God when I deliver books or school supplies to School 54…or share a laugh with some of the kids from St Mary’s School for the deaf…

I feel rich toward God when I pack bags in the [pet] food pantry

I feel poor toward God when I forget that this is God’s world, not ours.

I feel poor toward God when I forget that God’s in charge, not me.

I feel poor toward God when all that stuff that makes me feel rich toward God gets put on the back burner.

This parable isn’t about the evils of having too much. It’s about being driven to distraction as we keep up with all the “stuff” filling our playrooms, our barns, our hearts and souls. It’s about distraction, its’ about all the stuff that keeps us from noticing the love of God and offering love of neighbor.

This whole section of Luke’s Gospel—what we’ve been reading this summer, is about what God wants us to value. It’s written to teach us that what matters to God and what should matter to us is that we bring all that we are and all that we to this altar---where we are fed the bread of life and we drink from the cup of salvation, for when we do that, when we stop worrying about stuff and start trusting in God, our barns will be full of something more valuable than stuff and more rewarding than want, our barns, our playrooms,  our hearts and our souls will be filled with the abundant richness that is God. Amen.

    When I was working with cocaine-exposed children and their mothers, we had to keep a very tight reign on the number of toys in the children's playroom. Too many fun shiny toys would completely overwhelm the children, leading to a quick meltdown. I think the theory holds true for all children, but especially for these cocaine-exposed kids, too much "stuff" overwhelmed them and led them to distraction. 

I often feel that way about life. Life is full of stuff.. Stuff that needs our attention. Stuff that distracts, consumes and at times, overwhelms us. 

It seems the more complicated our lives become, the less connection we have with God. 

Riches on earth pull us away, distract us from riches in heaven.

The riches, the STUFF of life pulls so many of us into the rat race of the here and the now that we forget the forever and the eternal. Riches in this life often make us forget our richness in God. 

This Gospel is about being rich toward self vs being rich toward God.

How rich are you toward God?

Okay time for a couple of disclaimers.

First, Having stuff, being wealthy, is not a bad thing. Second, we're all wealthy. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and to the rest of the world we all, even the poorest among us, are wealthy. So even though it's tempting to, while listening to the parable of the rich fool, as this story is known, to say “well if I was rich I wouldn't behave that way...” we can't say that  because we are rich.

But lots of us don’t feel rich. Many of us feel poor. Which, actually, is at the heart of this Gospel. The man in the parable wants to relax to eat drink and be merry. And he’ll do that just as soon as he builds enough barns. But there’s the rub, he’ll never have enough barns. Because he’ll never feel like he has enough…because he isn’t filling his barn with God, he’s filling his barn with self. He isn’t filling his barn with hope, he’s filling his barn with fear. He isn’t filling his barn with true abundance, he’s filling his barn with a terror of scarcity.

The having of stuff isn't the problem according to Jesus, the distraction it causes, is. 

In the gospel the man who wants Jesus to tell his brother to be fair with the family inheritance has just lost his father. Inheritances only come into play when someone has died and in this case this man, and his brother, have lost their father. But does he come to Jesus seeking  solace? No he comes to Jesus seeking righteous justification. He comes to Jesus to make sure he gets what's his. He comes to Jesus about stuff. About external, material things. He comes to Jesus distracted by “want.”

He’s not looking to fill a spiritual emptiness, he’s looking to fill his barn. 

Having stuff isn't bad. Wanting stuff isn’t bad. Getting distracted by the stuff , being derailed by the want is.

Being rich in cash and goods isn't bad, letting cash and goods block our connection to God, is. 

Being rich isn't bad, being poor toward God is.

Are we rich toward God or are we poor toward God?

I feel rich when I find myself in silence. No dogs barking, no phone ringing, no email dinging, no sirens, no honking horns.

I feel rich toward God when Pete and I clean the barn and mow the grass up at the ranch. 

I feel rich toward God when I put everything else aside and stand behind that altar, celebrating the Eucharist

I feel rich toward God when I deliver books or school supplies to School 54…or share a laugh with some of the kids from St Mary’s School for the deaf…

I feel rich toward God when I pack bags in the [pet] food pantry 

I feel poor toward God when I forget that this is God’s world, not ours. 

I feel poor toward God when I forget that God’s in charge, not me. 

I feel poor toward God when all that stuff that makes me feel rich toward God gets put on the back burner. 

This parable isn’t about the evils of having too much. It’s about being driven to distraction as we keep up with all the “stuff” filling our playrooms, our barns, our hearts and souls. It’s about distraction, its’ about all the stuff that keeps us from noticing the love of God and offering love of neighbor. 

This whole section of Luke’s Gospel—what we’ve been reading this summer, is about what God wants us to value. It’s written to teach us that what matters to God and what should matter to us is that we bring all that we are and all that we to this altar---where we are fed the bread of life and we drink from the cup of salvation, for when we do that, when we stop worrying about stuff and start trusting in God, our barns will be full of something more valuable than stuff and more rewarding than want, our barns, our playrooms,  our hearts and our souls will be filled with the abundant richness that is God. Amen.