Christmas I: Full of Grace and Truth and Love, This is OUR Christmas Story 28 Dec 2014

+ Whenever we have an opportunity to hear the Creation story read as part of our Sunday readings, I often read the Creation story as told by Jerome Berryman in the Godly Play Sunday School curriculum. Today’s Gospel, commonly referred to as the Prologue of John, is a creation story and a Christmas story all wrapped up in one.
It is the foundational story of our faith.
And it is as confusing and confounding as anything else in Christianity…but here’s a tip-----don’t think too hard, just listen.
In the beginning...well in the beginning there wasn’t much. It’s true; in the beginning there wasn’t much of anything. At least nothing we would recognize, nothing that fits the limits of our human imaginings.
For in the beginning there was, simply, Love.
And not just any Love but capital L Love, the original Love. And this Love, the source of all Love could not, would not, and will not be contained.
So it sprung forth. And is still springing forth. It won’t end.
Love sprang forth. As light. A light to enlighten the nations, to enlighten the people, to illuminate all. Light was the first offspring of Love…
And this light? This light isn’t just any light; it is the Light, which was made from Love. It’s the light that illuminates eternity. It is the Light of Christ. It is the Light of God. It is the Fiery Light of the Holy Spirit. This is the light of all people. Forever.
The Light and the Love from which it sprung has spent generations’…millennia….illuminating the world, warming hearts and leading the way.
The way toward grace and truth.
The way from and back to Love.
In the beginning. Well, even before the beginning, it was dark. The light glimmered and then shone in the darkness, but the darkness didn’t go away. The darkness doesn’t go away. It creeps in. Here and there, now and again. But the Light which comes from Love is resilient. It is strong, it is persistent. The Light which Comes from Love is God and God will not stop, God will not be overshadowed, no matter how hard the darkness tries.
But the dark? It has a strange hold on us. It terrifies and intrigues us. It pulls at us and often, often we succumb. Not because we are bad, but because we are afraid. And darkness preys on fear.
Letting go of the dark is scary. It makes no sense…it’s one of the great mysteries of life, but it is true: Letting go of the dark is scary.
The angels say, Do Not Be Afraid. Prophets are afraid, but they do it anyway. This being afraid and doing it anyway is the definition of courage. So Do Not be Afraid or have Courage and Be afraid but do it anyway-----For the Light which is Love is waiting.
The Light. That light which comes from Love, does not, can not and will not be overshadowed by the darkness. It will not give in to fear. The light shines brightly, waiting for us to open our hearts, minds and souls to it.
Is there darkness in your hearts? Is there fear? The Light that comes from Love is waiting. Waiting for you, waiting for us, to let go of the dark and allow the light to shine.
It has come to dwell among us in that manger and we need to travel, with the shepherds and the magi, to that barn, peering over the crib to gaze at the outstretched arms of our Savior, reaching out, in light and love.
We must shed the fear of darkness and the darkness of fear, reaching down to the source of light and love, embracing it, embracing him, the Christ Child. The Child who has come to dwell among us, full of grace and truth.
Because just like the angel Gabriel’s visits to Mary and Joseph, and just like no room at the inn and shepherds in a field, this shedding the dark and embracing the light is our Christmas Story, because our Christmas story is all about God’s unending love for us---a love that could not be contained, a love that absolutely needed to come down from heaven and dwell among us in the person of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Emmanuel.
In the beginning was Love. And in the present is Love. And in the future? Love. Love. Love.
Merry Christmas, Love is in the house and His name is Jesus.

Amen.

I Believe. Do You? Christmas Eve 2014

Our Christmas card this year encourages people to “Believe in the magic of the season.”
I’m all over that, for I do BELIEVE and I consider the incarnation---God taking on flesh and bones to live among us—to be a magical and glorious thing. Likewise, I find Santa, his sleigh, those reindeer and the elves to be pretty magical and glorious as well.
Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter on social media about putting the “Christ back in Christmas,” about focusing less on Santa and his sleigh and more on Christ and his crib.
Well you know what? I don’t think these two images are mutually exclusive. I think these stories can peacefully co-exist because they’re both wonderful tales of love and mystery…all we have to do is believe.
Believing is a wonderful thing.
But it’s also where we get into trouble. You see there are an awful lot of people who spend a whole lot of time trying to tease the “facts” out of the Christmas story. There are people who vehemently deny the notion of a virgin birth, there are others who take great glee is noting that there is no historical evidence that there was a census in Judea in the early part of the first century, while still others like to point out that this birth happened in August not December, in Nazareth and not Bethlehem.
Whatever.
You see the Christmas stories—the one with Jesus and the one with Santa—aren’t about fact, they’re about truth.
And the truth of the matter is, I believe.
I believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, born of a peasant girl and her betrothed, Joseph.
I believe that this was an extraordinary birth in otherwise ordinary circumstances.
I believe that God chose to come among us in this way because God didn’t want to make a big splash.
 I believe God wanted to come to us in a whisper not a shout.
I believe God wanted to ease into living among us, in the flesh of Jesus.
And I believe we needed to be eased into having God among us, in the flesh.
I believe this was not something to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly. I believe this needed to be entered into cautiously and with restraint.
I believe that God came to live among us, because I believe God really wanted to know just what it was like to be human.
I believe that God wanted to know creation not only from the top down, but from the bottom up.
  So God came to us the same way we all come, through the very natural, very messy, at times very complicated and very risky process of pregnancy and then birth.
You see, Jesus being born to two ordinary people in a somewhat extraordinary circumstance is exactly how the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God in the flesh needed to come to us. Because the sacred and the miraculous isn’t only in the gold and shiny, the neat and tidy and the all put together.
It’s in the mess and muss of birth.
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only the glorious sunsets, it’s also the rain storms.
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only the fabulous arias, it’s also the tinny tune of a tone deaf child
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only on Christmas and Easter.
The sacred and the miraculous is every single day.
The sacred and the miraculous is all that God has created, because all that God creates is beautiful, stunning and miraculous…even when it’s messy.
All that God creates is priceless
All that God creates is holy
And all that God creates is wonderful.
This is the wonder and the glory of this holy and blessed night: that God came to be among us in the skin and bones of humanity, in the dirt and dust of the wilderness, in the baying, baa-ing, mooing  and clucking of the donkeys, sheep, cows and chickens of that barn. That God came to be in the hearts and minds and souls of each and every one of us gathered here on this silent night.
I believe that God as Jesus Christ was born to Mary and Joseph and that this birth was revealed with a great heavenly host to shepherd’s tending their flock in a nearby field because God is in the ordinary and the mundane, as well as the extraordinary and the magnificent.
I believe that Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph each and every year so that maybe, just maybe, a few more people will come to believe that God loves us—US—so much that God just can’t stay away.
I believe in the miracle of Christmas, because I believe in the never-ending, all encompassing love of God, a God who needed, absolutely positively needed to be with us, skin and bones, dirt and dust, baying and mooing and baaing.
I believe in the absolute truth of this Holy Night: that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, come to earth through us and for us.
And that, my friends is one fantastic Christmas gift.
Now all we have to do is return the favor and give God the only gift God desires, the only thing God wants: us. So on this most beautiful of Christmas nights I encourage you, I implore you, yes I am not above begging you to take a lesson from God and do everything in your power to accept God into your hearts and your minds and your souls this night and forevermore. Because when you do that, when you welcome God into your life, you will, Believe. And that, believing, is, by far, the greatest gift of all.
So, go, tell and believe: Jesus Christ is here, Alleluia and  Amen.

Advent 4 We are wonderful in God’s eyes. Yep, regular ol you and me Dec 21 2014 Yr B

+
“Nothing is too wonderful to be true.
Nothing is so holy it’s unreachable.
And nothing is as sacred and wondrous to God as we are.
God loves us beyond all understanding. I say it all the time and here I am, saying it again!
But this fact, that we are wonderful in God’s eyes, is really difficult for us to believe and to accept.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus who takes center stage today, is a really good teacher. In today’s readings, Mary schools us on graceful acceptance of the incomprehensible Love that is God.
Mary said yes, she walked with faith, she journeyed in trust and, even though she had nary a clue what was going to happen, she responded to God’s beckoning, to God’s reaching out, to God’s Love taking on flesh in that Bethlehem barn.
Mary was receptive, she made room for God in her life and when God called, she answered.

Now before you say, “well sure, that was Mary….there’s no way I could do that,” consider this:
Mary, contrary to generations of theologians who have tried to make her more than human, was a young girl who had no remarkable pedigree, no history of exhibiting outrageous faith and who was, from an ordinary family.
So, why did God choose her?
Because she was ordinary, and ordinary humans—people like you and me, people like Mary and Joseph---are absolutely adored by God.
This is the true miracle, the true wonder of the story of Jesus’ birth: it happened to regular people.
Regular people were chosen to bear and raise God in the Flesh.
Regular people who responded with amazing, astounding and outlandish grace, but were regular people nonetheless.
I suppose we could say that God knew Mary would say yes.
I suppose we could say that God knew Joseph wouldn’t throw Mary to the curb when he found out about the pregnancy.
I suppose we could say that God had this whole thing planned out, like some type of masterful puppeteer, but there’s no evidence to suggest this to be true.
Rather there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest that God approaches us and asks us---all the time---to be the bearers of God’s wondrous light to the entire world and that, those of us who say “yes” are in for the ride of our lives.
Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, Moses, Aaron and Miriam, David and Nathan, Ruth and Naomi---these are not people of extraordinary moral character or tremendous faith when God reaches out to them. As a matter of fact, most of them tried their darndest to, at best, ignore and, at worst, reject God’s overtures. But, regardless of their hesitancy, regardless of their utter humanity, each and every one of them ended up being servants of God, bearers of Good News, prophetic witnesses of God’s abundant, expansive and remarkable Love.
This is what we’re all called to do and to be.
God doesn’t choose us for who we are at our worst moments, God chooses us for who we can be at our best.  And God knows that we all---each of us---can be something amazing. Something wonderful. Something prophetic. Because God knows we are—each and every one of us—someONE amazing, someONE wonderful, SomeONE prophetic.
We just need to find our voice, our faith, our trust.
And then we need to
use our voice,
exercise our faith
and exert our trust.
We can learn how to do this, by watching Mary.
Mary asks Gabriel, “How Can this Be?”
Gabriel replies, it can be because you, like all of humanity, is favored by, loved by and longed for by God. And nothing—“NOTHING is impossible with God.”
Mary, HEARING that nothing is impossible with God, BELIEVING that nothing is impossible with God, TRUSTING that nothing is impossible with God simply responds with:
“Here I am Lord. Let it Be according to Your Word.”
She didn’t do a cost benefit analysis. She didn’t consult her business manager or her therapist or her life coach.
She simply said, Here I am Lord. Your servant. Let it Be.
Mary wasn’t any holier than you and me. But, perhaps because of her age, perhaps because she was from a small country town, perhaps because she was so in awe of having an angel visit, or maybe just because she was receptive to wonder, Mary stepped aside and let the Love of God take her over, making her an extraordinary instrument of God.
Although Mary wasn’t any holier than you and me,
she sure was brave.
Not because she had a child before marriage. Not because she stood by Jesus all the days of his life, not even because she said yes. No Mary was brave because she trusted. She had faith and she truly believed that NOTHING was too wonderful, too outrageous, too incomprehensible to be true… even the fact that God can and that God does love each and every one of us enough to name us God’s Favored One.
We’re regular folks who’ve been graced with God’s Favor.
And my Advent wish for each and every one of us is that we accept this favor and learn, by taking baby steps, to trust  and to live into it through Faith, accepting that the Love of God isn’t too wonderful to be True, but it is too wonderful to be ignored.
 It’s too wonderful to be tossed aside.
 It’s too wonderful to be denied.
Mary’s soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. Her spirit rejoices in God her Savior and her wonder is sacred, her trust holy and her example for us?
Priceless.
Nothing is too wonderful to be true, and nothing is too holy to be unreachable and nothing and nobody---is beyond God’s loving embrace.
So, my friends, I invite you to join me in entering the mystery and wonder of Christmas, of the incarnation, of Emmaunuel—God with us---and, taking a page from Mary’s instruction book to open wide our arms and proclaim, Here I am, Lord, Here I am.
Amen.+

***this sermon was preached on Advent 4 in 2011 . When I read the readings for this week and started thinking about what I wanted to say, I looked at other sermons I’ve written on this text. When I read this sermon I realized that, in light of the prophetic joint pastoral letter released by the RC and Episcopal Bishop last week, THIS was what I wanted to say to you this week: trusting in God’s outrageous love for us can lead us all into brave and astounding prophecy. So I offered it again this week, with just a few edits***

The Pastoral Letter from the Episcopal and RC Bishops, plus my remarks 3 Advent 2014

The link to the Bishops' pastoral letter

http://jerusalem-crossing.com/2014/12/15/547/

And my remarks following the reading of the letter:


There are a number of remarkable things about this letter.
First, in anyone’s memory this is the only time the RC and Episcopal Bishop have written a joint encyclical, a joint pastoral letter.
Secondly,
The RC Bishop signed a letter that included the following statements:
Gone are the days when we ignore leadership and authority in the voices of women
And
we ask you to be pioneers again in supporting the efforts….of all women and all men.
Did you hear that? Not some women and some men. Not simply men and women who follow the exact teaching of the Vatican, but All Men and All women.
This letter is also remarkable because of it’s prophetic tone.  Both Bishops are calling us out of our pews, out of these doors and into the streets. Both Bishops are saying that as the least of us go, so goes the whole of us. That as long as one person is hungry, one is naked, one is in prison, one is left out and pushed down, we all are.
This letter is a call to action, crying out to all of us who call Jesus our savior and redeemer, to stand up for those who cannot stand, to speak for those without voice, to love those who feel unlovable and to not rest until every single human being is respected and treated justly. Every single one.
Yes, this letter is remarkable…but you know what will be more remarkable?
If each and every one of us takes this letter as our clarion call and that, from this day forward we will follow the lead of Bishop Malone and Bishop Franklin, boldly living our lives in the way Jesus has instructed us too. Loving our neighbors. Always and with no exception.
I have never been so proud to be an Episcopalian, and I have never been so proud of our Bishop. Join me in making him as proud of us as we are of he. Amen.

Advent 2 December 7, 2014

+I am a person of privilege. Most of us sitting here today are people of privilege. We may not have a lot of money, we may not live in the fanciest neighborhoods, we may even experience our own share of prejudice against us because  of our socioeconomic status, our family background, our political position,  our sexual orientation….. but all but a very few of us---and I mean a VERY FEW----can and do walk down the street, walk into a store, drive through a wealthy community without note.
We aren’t followed.
We aren’t targeted.
We aren’t assumed to be dangerous.
We aren’t profiled.
Our lives matter.
We can breathe.
Not because of who we are.
Not because of what we do.
Not because of what we don’t do.
But because of how we look.
Because of the color of our skin.
My friends, we are in the midst of one of the most shameful periods in our national history. At this very moment, in this very city, in this very state, in this very country, young black men walk out the door every day with their mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends TERRIFIED that they will never walk back through.
Comfort O comfort my people.
Jesus cannot breathe.
Tarika Wilson
Aiyana Jones
Miriam Carey
Shereese Francis
These are the names of unarmed black women killed by police.
Most killed in front of their children.
Most called “collateral damage”...that is the police were looking for their husband or boyfriend and decided to force their way into the home.
With flash bangs and gunfire.
In front of children
Unarmed women, in their homes, caring for their children. Collateral Damage. As my grandmother used to say, “For Shame!”
From 2006-2012 a white police officer killed a black person at least twice a week in this country.
Comfort O Comfort My People
Jesus cannot breathe.
It’s too easy to blame the police and wash our hands of this issue. Racism isn’t a police problem, it isn’t an inner city problem, it isn’t a suburban problem, it isn’t a rural problem. It’s a problem. Period.
And it is one that each and every person here today has a moral obligation to fix.
Jesus has an opinion on this issue. Can you hear him?
 “Black lives matter.
Life matters
Respecting the dignity of every human being matters.
It's necessary
It's vital
It’s your Christian duty, it’s why I came to live with you. And it is why I died.”
From the prophet Isaiah:
A voice cries out:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Then the glory will be revealed. Only then.
So what does it mean to make straight the highway? To lift every valley and make the mountains low? What does it mean to make the uneven ground level and the rough places plain?
Well I may not know all the ways this is supposed to come to pass, but one thing is pretty clear: racism keeps the mountains high and the valleys low. It keeps the ground uneven. Racism separates us, racism rips us apart. Racism keeps us uncomfortable, uneven and crooked.
Racism has no place in a Christian heart.
And yet, racism lurks. In all of us.
Most of us don't intend to be racist....but each and every time we take our privilege for granted, we are contributing to the racism of this country. Each and every time we FORGET that black people , especially young black men, take their life in their hands each and every time they go out in public, we are contributing to the problem of racism in this country.
You see, racism isn’t simply about burning crosses on someone’s lawn, it's about saying things like: “well if they’d just pull themselves up by their boot straps and get a job….” Instead of working to change the entrenched systems of poverty in this country, we’re being racist.
Every time we let the Buffalo School Board put personalities above principals while children are promoted from grade to grade without being able to read, we’re being racist.
Every time we fail to be ashamed and outraged when we witness the blatant mistreatment of other human beings simply because of the color of their skin, we’re being racist.
As our bishop said in his statement about racism, Buffalo is the fifth most segregated city in the country. In the nation. FIFTH.
Here’s the thing--segregation breeds racism because segregation breeds fear. You see, when we’re separated we don't get to know each other and when we don't know our neighbor, when we don’t understand our neighbor, it's a whole lot easier to not care for our neighbor
Combating racism in our hearts and in our lives, in our society and in our world takes courage. Remember, courage isn’t a lack of fear, it's being afraid but doing it anyway.
Our faith requires courage.
Mary and Joseph were afraid when the angel Gabriel changed their life forever, yet they forged ahead, in faith and with courage.
 Jesus was afraid as he climbed that hill at Calvary yet he did it with faith and courage.
We have mountains to lay low, we have valleys to fill. It's scary work, but it’s necessary work. And it’s our work. Right here and right now.
Right here and right now, Jesus can't breathe.
Right here and right now, this nation's inherent racism has our Lord in a chokehold.
Right here and right now Jesus can't walk down the street without being followed and accused.
Right here and right now Jesus is being racially profiled, he's being treated as less than, he is being hated.
And he cannot breathe.
May God help Him. And may God help us. Amen.

Deacon Pete's sermon for 1st Advent 30 November 2014

Ready, Set……Wait.  That’s what Advent is in three simple words.  Those of us who grew up in liturgical churches have some familiarity with Advent.  It’s the season of the church year that starts after Thanksgiving and runs until Christmas.  When I was young, the color for vestments and liturgical accessories was purple, like Lent.  We were taught that it was a season of repentance, a time of making ourselves worthy of having God to be born among us.  It was a moderately dreary time, the apocalyptic readings, the reminders that we were base, selfish creatures who cared more about decorations, parties and gifts than about cleaning ourselves up for Jesus.  Years have gone by and we are still hearing about the Apocalypse on Sundays and we are still torn between the business and commercialization of Christmas and taking time to honor and experience a sacred and holy waiting period.
Some things have changed.  Many churches, like ours, use blue for the liturgical color of Advent.  Blue, not purple, blue ,like the color most often associated with Mary.  Blue, to show us that Advent is not Lent, and it is not Lent light.  We focus not on repentance, but on expecting, waiting, hoping and praying.
I feel as though I know something new and powerful about waiting, a way of waiting that is different for me than in the past.  These past 2 weeks and 2 days of walking through serious illness with Cathy and her mom, Elaine have opened my mind and heart to how serious, how powerful, how holy waiting can be.  There has been a lot of waiting:  waiting to see if Cathy would arrive in Chicago in time to see her mom alive, waiting to get x-ray results, waiting for biopsies and scans, waiting for surgery to be scheduled, waiting for surgery to actually begin, waiting for reports from the operating room, waiting for surgery to be over, waiting for Elaine to move from recovery to ICU, waiting for her to move from ICU to a step down room, waiting for her difficult recovery to progress to the point where she could be discharged and now, waiting for her to be strong enough for Cathy to come home.  That feels like a lot of waiting, and waiting is not my strong suit.
I’ve learned some things about Advent from all this waiting.  Advent is clearly a “now” and a “not yet time”.  And our readings reflect this curious phenomenon.  Mark’s gospel should really come with a big sign saying “Hang on, don’t panic”.  We don’t read the beginning of this chapter that starts with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem then proceeds to images of war, earthquake, famine, and family betrayal.  Jesus was spot on in saying  “this generation will not pass away until all of these things have taken place”.  Mark is writing to people who have already seen faith community in horrible straits.  After all, Jesus went around with the sorts of people that were best ignored, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the unclean, the lost and the lonely.  And now his followers are trying to do the same.  They refer to Jesus as Lord, not something easily accepted by the local authorities, and something often unacceptable to their own families.  Mark writes this chapter to acknowledge the pain, grief and great difficulties that they are going through.  But, he states, The Son of Man is coming”, no one knows the day or the hour, we are to “keep alert”, “keep awake”.  Mark is reminding his listeners and us that the kingdom of God is not delayed or cancelled.  It isn’t quite “don’t worry, be happy”, but the Gospel clearly tells us that waiting is expected, necessary and part of our call as followers of Jesus.  Waiting is holy.
What are we waiting for?  We are waiting for nothing less than God to enter our world, we are waiting for God to break into our lives, we are waiting for God to join us in all moments, all places, all times, past, present and future.   We are waiting for God with us, Emmanuel.
One of the things I learned about waiting these past few days is that holy waiting is not passive. Holy waiting is accompanied by preparation.  For me that meant trying to take care of some things here in Buffalo that needed doing-bulletins, sermons, taking care of our homes and our critters, checking airline flights and making hotel reservations.  Most importantly it meant praying fiercely that all would be well, whatever that “well” might mean.
Imagine how joyous, sacred and powerful Christmas will be when we get in touch with Holy Waiting.  Imagine how fresh and new the incarnation, God taking on human flesh, will be if we spend these next four weeks doing our part to form and reconcile God’s realm here on earth, if we get in touch with our need for a Savior and acknowledge that we are called to work as the hands and feet of God here on earth.
Let us remember not to be content with the way things are.  Let us be inspired by a curiosity about what is possible.  What dreams of community and spiritual growth can we dream?  While we wait and prepare for the birth of Christ, can we also wait and prepare for Jesus coming again?  Most of us wait in a modicum of safety and comfort.  We have the time and the means to hope for the day God’s peace and justice will rule the earth.  Can we use this hope to fuel our willingness to actively participate in creating the kingdom of God?  Will we use this time of waiting and hope to reach out and share life with those who are most in need God’s loving touch?  Will we use this time to acknowledge and care for people in need- for the hungry, the homeless, for victims of violence and injustice, for those who are sick and sad?  While we wait for Jesus to be born and for Jesus to come again will we do the preparation necessary to make our here and now world look more like the kingdom of heaven?
When we are able to do this, to wait and to do the work of preparing for Jesus to come at Christmas and at a time no one knows, when we are willing to live in the now and the not yet, we will experience a holy Advent.  And when our Advent is holy, how much more meaningful, joyous, and sacred will our Christmas be?  Amen.

sermon written by Cathy, preached by Pete, Christ the King Sunday 2014 "Christ as King Requires the Unleashing of Grace"

Being seen---really seen—is powerful. This past week I was really struck by how seen I felt while staying with my mom in the hospital. The Critical Care Unit was FULL, yet anytime a nurse came into mom’s room it was as if she was the MOST important person in the world and that her case was the most important case. The staff did a great job of seeing my mom, and my sister and me. They never seemed rushed, distracted or bothered. It was incredibly comforting.
Being seen, really seen, is powerful.
They asked: “Lord, when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?
When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? “
 Jesus responds, “Truly I tell you just as you did it to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Each time you saw them, you saw me.
Each time you noticed them, you noticed me.
Each time you helped them, you loved me.
Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?
Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
Hey, I’m right here? Don’t you see me? Don’t you care?
 What we do unto others, we do unto God.
In our Baptismal Covenant we promise to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter. Seeking and serving Christ requires looking, seeing and noticing.
 Do you notice Jesus? He’s right there….right in front of us….He’s the mentally ill man  who talks to himself….
He’s the very unpleasant woman on the other end of the customer service phone……
He’s the child you’ve raised who’s turned her back on you.
He’s the spouse who’s left you.
He’s the unreasonable boss, the angry, spiteful neighbor….
He’s the hungry, the naked the lonely and the rejected….
He’s in all of them, He’s in everyone, everywhere, always.
How we treat others is how we treat God.
 These past few weeks we’ve heard readings about judgment at the end of time. Today we hear about sheep and goats, about righteous and unrighteous….these readings of harsh judgment seem so incongruous to the teachings of Jesus, and I think it’s easy to brush them off as “not the Jesus we know and love.”
But, on this last Sunday of our church year, on this Christ the King Sunday, we reflect on the life of Jesus on earth, we remember his death and resurrection as we await his coming again---we’re reminded that what we do on this earth does matter, that our job is to do the things that will bring the Kingdom of Heaven to reign here on earth. It’s the number one job we, as beloved children of God, have here an earth.
You see, each and every time we notice another person--really notice them… really look in their eyes, really listen to what they have to say…every time we do THAT we make more room for God, through Christ, in this world.
And each and every time we fail to see Christ in the other, we BLOCK God’s ongoing effort to break through and into our every thing.
The Apocalypse—the end of time---is when the barriers between this world and the next fall, when this world and the next unite through the only King that matters: Jesus Christ. And, each time we notice God in another, each time we really see Jesus, seeking and serving him in all whom we encounter, we bring that time ever closer. You see, this end of time thing, this “coming of the day of the Lord,” this apocalypse,
 doesn’t happen in one fell swoop; it happens over time, with each and everyone of us doing our part.
 We must make room for The Christ to dwell. We must break away from all that ensnares us. We must free ourselves from all that frightens us, we must loosen the grip of doubt while reaching out and up ready to receive our King, our Lord, our Beloved God.
As priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor puts it: “We are called to look at each other and see Christ. It’s as simple, and as hard, as that.”
This is not easy work, but it’s vital. To do this, to turn our lives over to care of God and to turn our focus onto the community of the world in which we live, requires grace.
The God-given ability to see beyond ourselves, to see beyond our own wants, needs and fears and look at the bigger picture—that ability is a gift from God, it is a gift of God…it is grace. And when we accept that grace and act through that grace, it spreads. From me to you and from you to another and on and on and on.
It’s that chain reaction of grace, that domino effect of noticing God in each other, of seeking and serving Christ in all whom we encounter, that makes room for God in this world.
It’s that chain reaction of grace, fueled by our noticing, really seeing Christ in everyone we encounter, that will bring the kingdom of heaven to reign here on earth. It’s that chain reaction of love for all, no exceptions, that unites the ideal of heaven with the reality of earth.
It’s that chain reaction of grace that brings about the fulfillment of all that Jesus came to accomplish.
It’s the chain reaction of grace which brings us a peace that surpasses all understanding.
By seeing each other as God through Christ sees us, by really seeing each other, we unleash that chain of grace and that, my friends is the whole point.
Jesus Christ as our King may seem like an a odd title for this itinerant preacher who spoke of the sanctity of the poor, the sick, the outcast and the rejected…..But Christ as the King of a world where the Divine is noticed in all, where the Holy is respected by all and where the Love of God is the rule and not the exception—that is a world where Christ, as King, makes sense.

16 November 2014 Yr A--Deacon Pete

One night last week I put a dirty dish in the sink, meaning to put it in the dishwasher in a few minutes.  I got distracted by the dryer buzzer or the dogs barking or a text message coming through on my phone, who knows?  Anyway, I forgot to put the dish in the dishwasher and I ended up in my recliner in the family room.  A few minutes later there was a sound of something falling in the kitchen and Scout was nowhere to be seen.  I thought she was probably angry about something and, as is her wont when she is displeased, tipped over the trash can.  As I entered the kitchen I could see that the trash can was upright, but the blue dish was cracked in half on the floor.  Scout had grabbed it out of the sink and then dropped it on the floor. I muttered something I wouldn’t say in front of my mother, picked up the pieces and threw them away.
“People have said that this part of the modern culture is the reason for everything from our divorce rate to our piles of trash. When something breaks, we throw it away.
In ancient Japan, when a ceramic bowl broke, they fixed it. Legend has it that a Japanese shogun was unimpressed with the repair done on a Chinese bowl he had sent to be fixed, so he hired some Japanese craftsmen to find a more beautiful method of mending ceramics. They developed a technique called kintsugi, in which the broken pottery is literally mended with gold dust. Rather than trying to hide the flaws in the broken ceramics, they would highlight them in gold, baring the cracks and scars and adopting them as a part of the ceramic.
The technique became so popular that people may have even begun intentionally smashing bowls and plates in order to have them repaired. The ceramics mended with kintsugi actually became more valuable than they had been before they were broken.  It was considered more beautiful because it was broken.”
“Sometimes there’s pain and suffering and brokenness before we get to joy.  And sometimes everything has to fall apart to open up space for the new.
Chaos often precedes order.  Things tend to get really messy before the new is established.  While most of the time incremental change works best, other times bringing about change requires something sweeping, more all-encompassing .  And such dramatic change can feel frightening and uncomfortable, it can seem thoughtless and jarring.
Jesus came to heal, and in order to do that he also came to break apart, to break into pieces the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that were keeping people from reaching back to God, from developing a relationship with God that was whole and holy. But, no surprise here, the disciples don’t get it.  Jesus is using these many weeks worth of parables that we have been reading to help us break apart and reform.  He knows that is the only way that we will ever be able to take our part in creating heaven on earth.
Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Talents, gives us a strategy for moving from the “I don’t get it” crowd into the “I got it” crowd.  The story tells us a lot about money, how each slave manages his masters’ fortune.  But, of course, the meaning of the parable has nothing to do with money and everything to do with talents.  You see, the bottom line to Jesus’ message is:  live life, take what talents you have been given and do good, don’t live in fear of what might happen, don’t live in fear of brokenness, live in hope of what might happen, in hope of being whole and lovely.  For, life happens, stuff happens, some good and some bad, some thrilling and some terrifying, but, if we live our life embracing all of our unique, varied and oh so individual “talents”, if we use them to further the march of creation, then we’ll be ready for whatever comes next.
Think about it.  Think about how bushes need to be pruned way back sometimes so that new shoots and leaves have room to sprout.  How trees, in order to keep growing need to shed their old, tired, broken bark.  Think about how the best way to get your hair to grow long and healthy is to trim it regularly.
Jesus came to earth to shake up the old order, to break it open and create something brand new.  On the cross Jesus took all of our brokenness and then walked out of the tomb three days later to give us something altogether new.  Jesus defeats brokenness, always, forever.  The itinerant preacher from Nazareth takes all of our fear of brokenness, all of our doubt, all of our love of order and all of our hatred for uncertainty and breaks us wide open.  Making space for something new and beautiful to be created.
Sometimes there is pain, suffering and brokenness before we get to joy and beauty.  Sometimes everything has to fall apart before the new can be born.  Sometimes you have to break the bowl so that the gold can shine forth. “
1
  http://www.incourage.me/2014/03/broken-things.html
2
 Heavily adapted from:  Sometimes Everything Has to Fall Apart.  Nov 13 2011 www.goodshepbuf.blogspot.com

22 after Pentecost 9 Nov2014

Did you know that in dream interpretation theory we are every single person and thing in our dreams? That by considering how the scene of the dream plays out from the perspective of each person and each object in the dream (from the leading character to the lamp to the end table) we discover more and more about ourselves and the “stuff” we happen to be dealing with at that moment.
If we enter the study of our dreams with an open mind, we can really learn a lot.
It’s hard and fruitful work.
Parables are a lot like dreams—we must crack them open to enter them…and if we’re honest, we can discover bits of ourselves in each and every character…Of course after a couple of months of parables from Matthew’s Gospel I’d understand if you all were just a bit sick and tired of working so darn hard to make heads or tails out of these stories.
The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, formally known as the Parable of the Ten Virgins---you can elicit your own social commentary from THAT change----is a pretty harsh bit of prose; the bridesmaids are split into two distinct groups---wise and foolish.
I don’t know about you, but I rotate between wise and foolish hourly!
We are both wise and foolish, we are both sheep and goats, we are both wheat and chaff.
But, and here is the point----God doesn’t decide which group we’re in…
WE DO.
It’s easy to hear these readings in the march toward Advent as angry and violent challenges to our very faith. For generations, preachers have used this reading, and others like it, to scare to beejebbers out of people.
And that’s wrong. These readings aren’t about God rejecting us, these readings are about us, rejecting God.
This reading, and the many others like it we’ll hear for the next few weeks, aren’t telling us that we better straighten up and fly right or else we’ll be tossed out of the kingdom into the outer darkness where there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Instead, these readings give us a glimpse into the heartbreak of Jesus at our inability to live life as true and real and full believers.
You see, Jesus’ time on earth was short and he worked hard to get his message that God loves us all, no exceptions, to fruition. He assumed that we would grab ahold of his message and never let go. That we would work tirelessly to bring God’s kingdom to reign here on earth by loving everyone, no exceptions….by fighting injustice, prejudice and hate…by feeding the hungry, by standing up for the very young, the very old, the very different and the very lost.
This is the work of Christ, work that we are to undertake at all times and in all circumstances…no exceptions.
Jesus the man walked the earth to model this behavior for us.
Jesus had been clear. Or so he thought.
Jesus had been fervent. Or so he thought.
Jesus had been compelling. Or so he thought.
But at this stage of Matthew’s Gospel, as Jesus is facing crucifixion, he’s not at all sure that his message has penetrated.
 Has he been heard?
Will his message last?
Can his followers do it?
These questions must have haunted Jesus as he faced the final days of his earthly life.
So he got a little snarky.
Who can blame him?
He was waiting for his followers to step up and step in.
He’s still waiting.
My friends, the kingdom of God here on earth isn’t ushered in by chariots of fire.
It’s ushered in by us—by you and by me.
  It’s up to us to claim the message of God given to us through Jesus Christ and make it our own.
God doesn’t force God’s kingdom upon the world. The world—you and me--- create God’s kingdom here on earth.
And the time is now.
This is what all this talk about not “knowing the day nor the hour is all about”---we don’t. We don’t know anything except right now. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. This afternoon not’s guaranteed, the next hour’s not guaranteed.

What would our world look like if we lived as if this was it; if we lived in a state of constant alertness—of perpetual open-ness to the Spirit’s movement?
What would our world look like if we turned all that we are and all that we have over to God, praying for God’s guidance every single moment of every single day?
Now hear me out, I’m not saying that we lay back and say, “God will take care of it all,” I mean joining God in creating heaven right here on earth. Creating a world where justice flows like a river and the dignity of every single human being is respected. I mean doing the work Jesus showed us, I mean doing the work Jesus left for us to do. I mean getting busy with THAT work, right now.
We can do it.
We really can.
But we need to do it NOW.
I challenge each and everyone of you to commit, right here and right now, to pray, each and every day, for the courage to do God’s will in all that you do and for the Wisdom to know what is God’s will and what, in fact is our will. How you do this is up to you, but what would our little corner of the world look like if, each and every day we began the day by saying: “God, help me to see you in all whom I encounter today, help me to be your instrument in this world.”
You see, bringing the Kingdom of God to fruition on earth isn’t a job for a select few, it’s a job for the select many…it’s a job for the select all…because, the fact of the matter is this:
God doesn’t decide whether we are in or out.
God doesn’t decide if we are wise or foolish.
We do.
Some days we’re foolish, some days we’re wise but every day, every single day of our lives, we are the beloved Children of God, guaranteed a seat at the heavenly banquet. The question isn’t whether we’re in or out, the question is whether we’re willing to stay.
Amen.

All Saints' Sunday Nov 2 2014 And they wipe every tear from our eyes

Death is difficult. Having just gone through the sudden loss of one of our dogs I can honestly say that death—even of a pet-- is really difficult.
The slightest, seemingly inconsequential thing suddenly takes on new meaning and the grief and sadness that overcomes us can be very painful.
Sudden deaths are shocking and terribly sad.
And as we weep, God is there to wipe away every tear.
My dad was ravaged by cancer. He was a mere shadow of his former self, the primary lung cancer had metastasized to his brain and his bones. He was wracked with pain and was hallucinating. His death was a relief from all that horror. Yet still, as he took his final breath it was shocking and terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
When my young friend Ian fell into a deep darkness that I can’t even comprehend and decided to take his own life, so many of us were shocked and terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.

When we were in the middle of diocesan convention last week and word came down about the school shooting outside of Seattle, most of us flashed back to all the mass shootings before, none as horrific as Sandy Hook. Our bodies absorbed the shock and we were, once again, terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
On September 11, 2001 we were collectively kicked in the gut, terrified and shocked as the twin towers fell.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
When each of the 40+ people we will remember during the Eucharist died, those who loved them were shocked and terribly sad.
And each and every time:
God wiped away every tear
This is what makes today so wonderful in my eyes---it’s a day when the veil that separates the here and now with those who were and will be forever, lifts just a bit and we find ourselves in that Thin Place where the wonders of life eternal visit us here in our life temporal, reminding us that we are never ever alone, no matter how deep the grief, no matter how painful the loss, no matter how persistent the sadness we are surrounded by Love.
But All Saints’ Day isn’t just about the death of our loved ones. It’s about comfort in the midst of all loss. Take a good look at our reading from Revelation today and be encouraged by the words:
"These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; …
 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
All of us here today have lost things---jobs, relationships, health, hope, faith…and we grieve these losses and it is while in the midst of that grief when we can feel the most alone. Today is the day that we remember we’re never alone .
I’m lucky because I get to come into this sacred space late at night and early in the morning, when the world out there is quiet. As I walk around the nave---this area---I can feel them…all those people who loved this place. All those people who sat in these same pews, people who experienced losses unimaginable---those who lived through the Great Depression; those who lived through the loss of young men listed on our wall of war dead; those who lost their health; their livelihood; their relationships. Those who lost their hope and at times even their faith. Their presence lingers and on this great feast day may we all find comfort and strength in all that they did, all they accomplished, all they endured.
Comfort and strength.
I won’t lie to you. We need all the comfort and strength we can get.
Why?
Because the fact of the matter is this---the message we have for the world, the message so beautifully put in our reading from Matthew this morning is a message that was counter-cultural then and is, sadly, countercultural now.
The different and the outcast, the disabled and the ill, the young and the old, the immigrant and refugee are still reviled.
And our job is to push this world into more inclusion, more tolerance and more love.
That has always been our job and I fear it will continue to be our job for generations to come.
But, and this is where we really need courage and creativity, the way we do this job, the way we spread this message, needs updating. I’m not sure how that will look, but I know it won’t look like this---we owe it to our forebears, we owe it to our children, we owe it to our God to figure out how to be who we are in this 21st century world with limited resources, an aging building and a world that doesn’t want to hear us.
Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it?
It is.
But, with this immense cloud of witnesses surrounding us we can do this—it will require breaking out of our comfort zone, it will require doing some things---perhaps many things---differently, it will take courage. It will take hope. It will take flexibility. It will take love. It will take All the Saints, wiping our tears and guiding us to wherever it is God calls us to go.
Amen

Proper 24 Year A October 19, 2014 "Where God just was" Ascension version

One author describes today’s reading from Exodus like this: Moses wanted to see God face to face but God wanted Moses to focus less on who God is and more on what God does, so God puts Moses in a crevice, high atop a mountain where Moses could hear and feel God’s passing but wouldn’t be able to look until God had already passed by. God made sure that Moses didn’t look at God but rather saw where God had just been. Our English texts usually say that Moses could “see God’s back,” but that’s an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the “body” of God. He saw the place where God just was.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to look around.
Remember what Aidan said at our congregational meeting a few weeks ago, that he thought we should take our money and give it to people who didn’t have any…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Consider the Pet Food Pantry---all the folks who volunteer at it, all the churches who have emulated it, all the grateful clients, who are served with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but-- and here’s the problem facing the modern church--- does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world…so we have more work to do, because our job is to increase God-sightings. Frankly, I think we do a pretty good job of making God’s handiwork clear to those who are looking….the trick is getting more people to look…and to see.
I think our move into Good Shepherd’s building will be a great opportunity for God Sightings.
You all are showing the diocese, once again, what can happen when a group of people keep their focus on Love of God and Love of Neighbor.  You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” I am proud to say that the Church of the Ascension is a wonderful example of that sentiment. Soon the diocese will know that we are the real deal by our love…for even in the face of great challenges you have risen above and beyond those challenges by focusing on Love and Joy and Hope.
 Sadly many other ”Christian communities,” have  completely lost their way. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
We CAN show the world God. If we live God-centered lives, people WILL notice.
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars (Emperors). Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
These next few months will be challenging, they’ll be sad, they’ll be frustrating. Come January when we are worshiping in a new space, in a different part of the city, things will feel uncertain and foreign but one thing will remain—we each and everyone of us, bears the mark of Christ in our hearts. We are faithful, courageous people who love God and each other.
Remember that. Remember that in all the uncertainty and strangeness we will, as we also have had, each other and God.
We may not see God’s face, but we see God each and every time we greet one another, and our neighbors, in love. God has just passed by, can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you?
God was here. God is here. And God will always be, right here. With us. Among us  and in us.
The world is watching. Will they know we are Christians? Yes, I believe they will.

Proper 24 Year A October 19, 2014 "Where God just was" Good Shepherd version

One author describes today’s reading from Exodus like this: Moses wanted to see God face to face but God wanted Moses to focus less on who God is and more on what God does, so God puts Moses in a crevice, high atop a mountain where Moses could hear and feel God’s passing but wouldn’t be able to look until God had already passed by. God made sure that Moses didn’t look at God but rather saw where God had just been. Our English texts usually say that Moses could “see God’s back,” but that’s an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the “body” of God. He saw the place where God just was.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to notice.
Look at our children as they gather behind the altar with me each Sunday…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Stop by the Food Pantry any given Wednesday and look at Bruce, David, Bev, Joan, Heather, Amy, Jill, Jeannine, and Gloria serving the clients of the pantry with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but, and here’s the problem facing the modern church, does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world. It means that even with the outreach work I just outlined, we have more work to do because our job, as Christians, is to help the world notice God. Our job is to increase the God-sightings in this, our corner of the world. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” We may want to revisit that. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
This is the lesson God was trying to teach Moses.
Moses felt like God was being coy and elusive. But God isn’t coy or elusive, we are just too distracted to notice God’s imprint on our world.
God’s not in hiding, the world just isn’t looking.
We have to show the world God.
The 117 pink flags on our front lawn show people God.
The  money collected from the noisy offering shows the kids at school 54, God.
The 59,000 meals provided to our neighbors through our food pantry shows God to the world.
All of that is great, but clearly there is more to do.
How else can we show the world the handiwork of our gracious and loving creator?
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars. Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
So…
How can the Church of the Good Shepherd become even more welcoming? How can we become even more helpful to the lost, the lonely the downtrodden and the despairing?
How can we, here at the corner of Jewett Pkwy and Summit Avenue become more than that pretty church on the corner? What can we do to ensure that the footprint of God is ever-present to all who wander past our doors, so ever present that they stop in and stay awhile? How can we, in all that we do, bear the imprint of God, so that all who encounter us realize and rejoice in the fact that through us, they’ve encountered God?
In this season of stewardship we take stock of who we are, who we want to be and how we can get there. As you pray about your financial pledge for 2015 I ask you to also consider how we, as a community of faith can show the world that God is here, now and forever. Amen.

We're Invited to really dig into this parable.Proper 23 October 12, 2014

+It’s the best party ever and we’re invited. All we have to do is say yes and join the celebration. God has set the table and has reserved a spot just for us. God is waiting. What’s taking us so long?
Today’s Gospel is Matthew’s version of the more famous parable in Luke called the Parable of the Great Dinner. Matthew’s version varies in a few ways, first of all, in Matthew it isn’t just any ol’ dinner, it’s a wedding banquet and secondly, Matthew’s is a fairly dark take on the whole story, with some pretty violent imagery. To be honest, it would be a WHOLE lot more fun to preach on Luke’s version, for Luke’s version is minus the murder, the destroying fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. But, alas, today we have Matthew not Luke. So here we go…
Jesus is still in the temple, answering the accusations of the temple leaders when he shares this parable. Remember, in a few days he’ll be crucified. The end of Jesus’ earthly ministry looms and all indications suggest that Jesus is feeling the pressure to get his point across….and fast!
Parables are stories that are replete with symbolism, double entendre and the like. To take a parable at face value is dangerous, for the truth actually lies beneath the surface. To hear the truth we must first understand the context in which the story was first told.
 In Biblical imagery, a banquet is used to describe God’s interaction with us: we’re all invited to accept God’s offer of never ending, over the moon love. Since time began, God has been inviting us to this banquet; and for generation upon generation we’ve ignored these invitations, we’ve denied these prophets, we’ve rejected God. We don’t show up for dinner.
Now the dinner Matthew describes isn’t just a dinner, it’s a wedding reception; and marriage, in biblical imagery, is a metaphor for God’s covenant with us---God’s promise to us.
To round out the imagery glossary, the king represents God and the son, of course, is Jesus.
It’s easy to assume, with this typecasting, that we’re the people who are being beaten, murdered or cast out, but—and hear me loud and clear---it not us!
In the first round of violence, beginning in verse 6, it appears that the King’s rage is a reaction to hurt and disappointment. The king, God, has invited what seem to be the most “deserving” of God’s children to the banquet. And yet the “select few” make light of the king’s/God’s invite, going back home, back to work, back to life as usual-- declining God’s invitation, disrespecting God’s offer, denying God’s love. God’s feelings, however it is that God experiences emotions, are hurt. And God acted out. You may think I’m nuts for saying that God had a temper tantrum like a 2 year old, but take a little walk through Hebrew scripture….God has a tendency to get extremely frustrated with humanity and, frankly, some of God’s responses were a little tantrum-y. My point is that for Matthew, the God of his sacred scripture, that is what is commonly referred to as the Old Testament, was a bit moody, so it makes sense that Matthew tells of “the king” sending an army to deal with the subjects who rejected the king’s generous offer of a banquet by laughing at it and beating up (and in some cases killing) the messenger. Hurt and anger leading to retribution. That pattern is as old as humanity itself.
In that light, it would be easy to write off the second episode of violent imagery as more divine acting out, but it’s not. The section I’m referring to is the part toward the end when the King becomes outraged at the man who isn’t wearing a wedding robe. He has the man bound and thrown into the outer darkness, where there’s all that weeping and gnashing of teeth.
      What?
      Really?
      Because he wasn’t wearing the right clothes??
Ok, bear with me, at this point of the parable the imagery is hot and heavy, and the message within that imagery? Priceless.
The wedding robe is a metaphor for the embrace of God. This wedding guest wasn’t there because he loved God, he was there because he hated God. You see, this guy wasn’t a person at all, he’s a metaphor for what is commonly called Satan or the Devil, or evil, or the forces of darkness.
You’ve all heard me describe the difference between the world of us, humanity and the world God intends for us as being the world of Not God and the world of God.
The guest without the wedding robe is from the Not God world. He  represents the forces of THIS world that work overtime to defeat the Love that is God. The poorly dressed wedding crasher represents all the evil that is, indeed permeating our world.
God is light and love, Not God is darkness and not Love. The wedding crasher was, most definitely, NOT love. So when Jesus says the wedding crasher will be tossed into the utter darkness he’s saying---the forces of evil in this world, the NOT GOD of this world will not win and will, in time, be swallowed up into the darkness of hate from which they came.
This parable, with all it’s twists and turns and violent scenes is, in the end, like so much of the Bible, a love story.
God has invited us to the greatest party of all time--- a party full of light and love and laughter. When we accept Jesus Christ into our heart, when we strive to live our life as Jesus has taught us to do--- loving God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul, and loving our neighbor as our self---we’ve said yes to God and we’ve entered the most fabulous party of all time. A party that never ends, a party that’s never boring, a party that will never ever disappoint.
Amen.

Pentecost 17 Yr A Connections make us who we are

There are two versions of this sermon, the first is for Good Shepherd, the second is for Ascension

+Today’s gospel isn’t pretty, it isn’t easy and it isn’t light. But it is really really good.
Let me set the stage for you:  Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem to face what is sure to be a violent and tragic end. He’s had three years to preach his message of a “new way.” For three years he’s challenged the status quo,  uprooted the traditions of the faith and ticked off almost all the religious leaders of his day. All of his teaching and preaching has come down to this confrontation: a rag tag group of country folk following an itinerant, blasphemous rabbi from Nazareth against the well-heeled, firmly entrenched religious bureaucrats of the temple. It's the established versus the itinerant, it’s the tony vs. the smelly, it’s the old vs. the new. The  tradition of the temple vs the way of Jesus Christ .
You see, somewhere along the line, the temple authorities had gotten lost. They’d become all about the power of their position rather than the honor of their position. Somewhere along the line, the prestige of their titles became far more important than their actual vocations. The temple authorities remind me a lot of the previous pope, Benedict, while Jesus reminds me a lot of the current pope, Francis. Benedict liked the finer things in life and was not afraid of flaunting thousand dollar shoes and ermine collared copes… … while Francis likes the simpler things in life, a common sedan instead of a limo, simple white vestments instead of gold lame’.
 Benedict was drawn to the seclusion and protection of the Vatican while Francis seems drawn to the ghettos and the slums.
Jesus was all about the ghettos and the slums….
And that made him a huge threat to the temple leaders. You see they could handle Jesus wanting to take over their jobs—that was a threat they could manage—what threw them for a loop was Jesus’ complete disgust, disdain and fury for all that they valued: prestige, the pomp and the circumstance.
Jesus'. disgust, disdain and fury was triggered by the moneychangers in the temple. When he sees the commerce associated with temple worship he LOSES HIS MIND.
 Offended, the temple authorities confront him asking Jesus; in no uncertain terms just who does he think he is?
The parables of the Vineyards, which we've heard these past few weeks, are Jesus’ responses to them.
Now, The actual vineyard part of today’s Gospel, when read through our Christian perspective seems pretty straightforward---God has given us charge over all of creation and we’ve pretty much mucked it up…going so far as to kill the very Son of God, God's greatest gift to us---as I said, pretty standard Christian stuff…it's what comes after the parable that, for me, is the real meat of today’s Gospel.
When Jesus reminds the leaders of this line from psalm 118, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" he's saying, “you reject me, but it's through me that a completely different temple will be built. A temple without stone or wall, a temple without roof or floor. A temple that will exist within and between people, a temple of community, a temple of love and faith and good will, a temple open to all who feel drawn to it, —no exceptions—a temple made up of people who together do their best to care for God’s vineyard here on earth.
Jesus is telling them that they've  lost their way that they've forgotten God’s message of love, as outlined in the ten commandments we just heard a few minutes ago.
It happens all the time, in business, in politics, in schools and in families –we lose our way when we become enamored with our power instead of humbled by our responsibility.
It happens in faith communities all the time, too: the love of power subverts the love of God. The love of "things" distracts us from the work God calls us to do.  A stained glass window becomes more important than caring for the children depicted within it, the love of an organ becomes more important than the songs of praise to God it plays, the love of sitting in the pew and listening to scintillating sermons becomes more important than walking out these doors to do the work we’ve been given to do. No matter how good our intentions, it's so easy to lose our way, to forget that we--- each and everyone of us--- has been entrusted with the work of God.
Another name for this is stewardship.
It’s easy to confuse funding building maintenance and programs with real down and dirty ministry. What Jesus is saying to the temple leaders and to us is "don’t confuse the means with the end." Yes we need to pay our bills, yes we need to keep our physical plant operational, yes we have salaries, but those things are not the end, those things are the means through which people become connected to God in this community of faith.
Stewardship is all about connections—connections between those of us here today, connections to those who came before us, connections to those who are yet to come.
Connections to God.
And, above all else, Stewardship is about honoring God’s connection with us.
When we say I am Good Shepherd you are Good Shepherd we are Good Shepherd we are naming those connections, we are honoring them. For when we say we're Good Shepherd we're really saying, we are God's fully completely and forever.
Unlike the Temple leaders, we know that it’s the connections through relationships and not the trappings of buildings and status that bring us ever closer to realizing the love of God, which is beyond all reason and surpasses all understanding.
And for that we say Amen.+

And the Ascension version:

+Today’s gospel isn’t pretty, it isn’t easy and it isn’t light. But it is really really good. 

Let me set the stage for you:  Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem to face what is sure to be a violent and tragic end. He’s had three years to preach his message of a “new way.” For three years he’s challenged the status quo,  uprooted the traditions of the faith and ticked off almost all the religious leaders of his day. All of his teaching and preaching has come down to this confrontation: a rag tag group of country folk following an itinerant, blasphemous rabbi from Nazareth against the well-heeled, firmly entrenched religious bureaucrats of the temple. It's the established versus the itinerant, it’s the tony vs. the smelly, it’s the old vs. the new. The  tradition of the temple vs the way of Jesus Christ .

You see, somewhere along the line, the temple authorities had gotten lost. They’d become all about the power of their position rather than the honor of their position. Somewhere along the line, the prestige of their titles became far more important than their actual vocations. The temple authorities remind me a lot of the previous pope, Benedict, while Jesus reminds me a lot of the current pope, Francis. Benedict liked the finer things in life and was not afraid of flaunting thousand dollar shoes and ermine collared copes… … while Francis likes the simpler things in life, a common sedan instead of a limo, simple white vestments instead of gold lame’.

 Benedict was drawn to the seclusion and protection of the Vatican while Francis seems drawn to the ghettos and the slums. 

Jesus was all about the ghettos and the slums….

And that made him a huge threat to the temple leaders. You see they could handle Jesus wanting to take over their jobs—that was a threat they could manage—what threw them for a loop was Jesus’ complete disgust, disdain and fury for all that they valued: prestige, the pomp and the circumstance.

Jesus' disgust, disdain and fury was triggered by the moneychangers in the temple. When Jesus sees the commerce associated with temple worship he LOSES HIS MIND. 

 Offended, the temple authorities confront him asking Jesus; in no uncertain terms just who does he think he is? 

The parables of the Vineyards, which we've heard these past few weeks, are Jesus’ responses to them. 

Now, The actual vineyard part of today’s Gospel, when read through our Christian perspective seems pretty straightforward---God has given us charge over all of creation and we’ve pretty much mucked it up…going so far as to kill the very Son of God, God's greatest gift to us---as I said, pretty standard Christian stuff…it's what comes after the parable that, for me, is the real meat of today’s Gospel. 

When Jesus reminds the leaders of this line from psalm 118, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" he's saying, “you reject me, but it's through me that a completely different temple will be built. A temple without stone or wall, a temple without roof or floor. A temple that will exist within and between people, a temple of community, a temple of love and faith and good will, a temple open to all who feel drawn to it, —no exceptions—a temple made up of people who together do their best to care for God’s vineyard here on earth.  

Jesus is telling them that they've  lost their way that they've forgotten God’s message of love, as outlined in the ten commandments we just heard a few minutes ago. 

It happens all the time, in business, in politics, in schools and in families –we lose our way when we become enamored with our power instead of humbled by our responsibility. 

It happens in faith communities all the time, too: the love of power subverts the love of God. The love of "things" distracts us from the work God calls us to do.  A stained glass window becomes more important than caring for the children depicted within it, the love of an organ becomes more important than the songs of praise to God it plays, the love of an address becomes more important than the work that waits for us outside these doors. No matter how good our intentions, especially for Ascension in the coming months, it's  easy to lose our way, to forget that we have a job to do—a job given to us by God. 

Sometimes this work isn’t easy. Such is the task ahead of us. Saying good-bye to this building will be difficult, BUT, what has strengthened us in this process and what will sustain us through our transition, are the relationships, the connections we have with each other. Many of you said it last week, what Ascension means to you isn’t our address, it’s us. You. Me. Us.

Our connections define who we are. 

Connections between those of us here today, Connections to those who came before us, Connections to those who are yet to come. 

Connections to God. 

I’m not one bit worried about how we, as a community, will do with this move. 

Why? Because our connections are mighty, our relationships, strong.

 We love each other, we trust each other and we work well together. Most churches couldn’t do what we’re about to do…but we can and we will. 

Jesus tells the temple leaders, “you’re missing the point…the temple is a means to an end….the building and it’s contents, the liturgy and it’s order, all of this is a means to the end of praising God. It’s a means to the end of serving God. The work we’ve been given to do happens out there, not in here. 

We are not like the temple leaders; we understand that to hold onto this place is to stifle the Spirit. We understand that to leave this place is to free the Spirit so that she can lead us forward, where our future waits. And for that courage, that faith and that hope, I say alleluia and amen.

Pentecost 16 Sept 28, 1014. Saying Yes While Living No

+Saying Yes while Living No. That’s how my favorite biblical commentators, known as “Two Bubbas and a Bible,” refer to the parable at the end of today’s gospel—the parable of the two sons.
A man had two sons---he asks them both to go work in the vineyard. The first says, “sure Dad, I’ll head right over,” and then doesn’t go at all. The second says, ”no way, Pops, I’ve got better things to do,” but then proceeds to have a change of heart and goes to work. The first son said yes and lived no, the second son said no, but lived yes.
Jesus asks, which of the sons did the will of his parent?
Of course it’s son #2 --even though he’d said no, he went and did the work, which is what his father wanted.
So, just why did this story infuriate the temple authorities?
Well, maybe they saw way too much of themselves in the first son and not nearly enough in the second.
You see, even though Jesus tells this story in response to his authority being questioned, he’s really telling it to call them out on their hypocrisy and corruption.
  Jesus turns the tables on their so-called righteous indignation by questioning their motives:
• Are they protecting the faith, or are they protecting their status?
• Are they protecting the honor of the temple, or are they protecting their role of prestige in the temple?
• Are they living their faith or are they just spewing their faith?
• Are they living a life of yes, or are they simply saying yes, and living no?
Jesus convicts them with his words and, if we’re honest, he convicts us, too.
But before we shut our ears and close our hearts to this message, hear me out.
It’s certainly easy to point fingers at the hypocrisy of others--our church and political leaders, our sports heroes and matinee idols, our bosses and our neighbors who say yes while most definitely living no. That’s easy.
What’s not so easy, and a whole lot more uncomfortable is to list all the ways we, ourselves, say yes, but live no. But to simply beat ourselves up and say how bad it is that we say yes and live no far more often than we should is, to me, a cop-out. We can say yes we stink, we should do better blah blah blah and then just go on living life as we have—that, in many respects is the easy way out.
And I don’t want to take the easy way out, I’d rather take the tough way in. You see it’s the defeatist attitude of beating ourselves up by admitting that we say yes and live no more often than not that keeps us stuck.
And that, in my opinion, is a major contributor to the decrease in church attendance across the globe.
Too many of us think that because we’ve had times in our life where we’ve said yes, but lived no—that we aren’t welcome, that there is no room for us at the table of our Lord, in a community of faith-- that “true believers” are those who have always, or at least most of the time, said yes and lived yes. That the only way to take a seat in the kingdom of God, in the fellowship of Christ, in a pew at Good Shepherd, is to clean up our acts get all spiffy and bright and “perfect” BEFORE coming to church. That’s completely backwards!
Why do we feel the need to pull ourselves together BEFORE showing up in a place designed to accept our brokenness,  a place designed to heal our hurts,  a place designed to forgive, heal, and renew?
It’s like what my mother always did before a cleaning lady came---she cleaned!!!
It’s nuts!
We’re way too hard on ourselves, assuming that the faith of “true believers” is unshakeable… unwavering.
Thinking that if we say we believe in God, we can’t ever question God.
Thinking that if we say we “love everyone, always no exceptions” that we can’t ever dislike or disagree with another.
Thinking that we can’t volunteer to help out on the altar or in the choir or in Sunday School or the food pantry because we don’t know enough or aren’t faithful enough or aren’t good enough.
The temple authorities don’t like that Jesus eats with prostitutes and tax collectors. The temple authorities want everything to look nice and tidy and bright; they’re way more interested in how things look,  rather than how things really are.
The kingdom of God hereon earth, isn’t nice and tidy and bright, the kingdom of God is full of people like you and me, people who try our best but sometimes fail, people like you and me who sometimes say no, but then find a way to live yes, people like us who make mistakes but get up and try again.
Living into the yes isn’t a place of perfect people, it’s a place of perfect grace.
So perhaps we’ve all “said yes and lived no” more than we want to admit. The good news is, God doesn’t care about the mistakes we’ve made, God cares about the progress we’ve made.
Like the parent in today’s parable, God cares a whole lot more about what we do and how we live, rather than what we say and how we look, because God doesn’t keep score, God cheers us on.+

***Two Bubbas and a Bible: The Lectionary Lab for Sunday September 28, 2014

Pentecost 14 Yr A Sept. 14 Forgiving is Fundamental

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
No matter how you slice it, Forgiveness IS Fundamental.
Fundamental to our health, fundamental to our faith, fundamental to our life.
Welcome to Forgiveness is Fundamental Sunday.
Many of us are probably like Peter in today’s Gospel, we know that forgiveness is important, that it is something we should do as often as we can but are a little off put by Jesus’ directive to forgive 7 times 70 …to forgive always, forever, everyone and everything, no exceptions… Because that’s what he’s really saying in today’s parable.
We have to forgive everyone and everything, always.
Why?
Because that’s exactly what God does for us.
God forgives us our trespasses, our debts and our sins every single day, every single time, always.

Forgiveness is Fundamental.
To God and to us.
We must forgive all the betrayals and hurts of our lives. All of them…  from the most heneious of crimes to the most biting of slights.
Not just the ones we know we SHOULD forgive.
Not just the ones we want to forgive.
Not just the ones anyone would forgive.
All of them.
Each time. Every day.
No exceptions.
Wow.

Think about it
how in the world can a rape victim forgive her rapist;
how in the world can the people of Ferguson MO forgive the police department;
how in the world can those who lost loved ones in the twin towers, forgive Al Quaeda;
how in the world can a child forgive the abuse of a parent;
how in the world can a spouse forgive infidelity;
how in the world can an employee forgive an unjust dismissal;
how in the world can we forgive an institution like the church when it fails to live as it teaches?
How in the world can we, let alone God, forgive such things?
It’s important to remember this:
forgiving is not condoning a horrid act.
Forgiving is not endorsing abuse
Forgiving is not excusing hate.
Forgiving isn’t erasing the fact, forgiveness is releasing the pain.
And doing that, releasing the pain, the betrayal, the horror is what sets us free. And being set free, is good, right?
Sure, but just because it’s good for us, doesn’t mean it comes easily to us. Sometimes it seems impossible to forgive, sometimes it feels impossible to forgive.
But what our faith teaches us, what our God models for us is this:
Forgiveness is possible, forgiveness is necessary and forgiveness is healing.
Author Sheila Cassidy puts it this way:
I would never say to someone ‘you must forgive’. I can only say: ‘However much we have been wronged, however justified [our] hatred [may feel], if we cherish it, it will poison us……[therefore] We must pray for the power to forgive, for it is in forgiving that we are healed.
When we hold onto our hurts, our betrayals and our pain, we poison ourselves. Clinging to the resentments, bitterness and rage doesn’t hurt the one who betrayed us, it hurts US.
It doesn’t keep the other person from living a full, happy and free life, it keeps us from living a full happy and free life.
Not forgiving sickens us.
Forgiving heals us.
But. As I said, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Forgiving others is hard and it’s not for the feint of heart.

For five years I’ve had a horrible time forgiving my brother in law Mark for not telling me that my sister Anne had had a stroke.
 For two days I was unable to reach her and for two days I just knew that something must be wrong, but for two days, while she was in ICU,she was  unaware of who she was, unaware that she was married with children, unaware that she had sisters.
 Mark didn’t tell me. For two days she was lost and so was I.
As you can tell, the memory of this still gets to me. It was scary….for Anne, for Mark, for me.
Forgiving Mark has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried to do. Some days are better than others….but a bad day is when I am so weighed down by anger, resentment, bitterness and hurt that I can’t get out of my own way.
On those days, my inability to forgive him, poisons me.



Holding on to hurts, hurts.
So, what can we do to shake free of the shroud of resentment and anger that blocks our way to forgiveness?
Well, first we have to admit that forgiveness is possible. Sure, at times I may not know how to forgive Mark, but I sure as heck know that forgiveness is possible. After all, I am forgiven every single day of my life by the all encompassing never ending love of God. A love that forgives and absolves me all my debts, all my errors, all my sin, all the time, every time, no exceptions.
By accepting the forgiveness granted to us by God, we learn how to forgive others.
To fully forgive Mark I must admit, accept and fully receive God’s forgiveness.
Because it’s only in being forgiven that we can truly and fully and completely forgive.
We must embrace being forgiven before we can forgive.


Listen closely to this section of the Lord’s Prayer:
“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Do you see the connection?

Being forgiven and forgiving are relational.
The prayer doesn’t say Forgive us our sins so that then we’ll be able to forgive others. No, the prayer says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
It’s one fluid motion, like a beautiful dance----as we are forgiven we forgive….as we are forgiven we forgive.
As we are forgiven, we forgive.
It’s fundamental my friends: forgiving, forgiven, forgiving, forgiven.
What a dance, what a faith, what a God.
Amen.

Pentecost 11 Proper 16 Yr A Aug 24 2014

Jesus asks: Who do you say I am?
I ask:
Who do we say Jesus is?
And for that matter who do we say we are?
When describing ourselves do we say—out loud-- that we’re Christian? It’s easier to describe ourselves as Episcopalians…or members of GS/ASC…but saying the C-word isn’t as easy, is it?
The moniker has been hijacked by those who proclaim to be devoted followers of Christ but use the words of the Gospel to condemn and exclude rather than lift up and welcome. “Christian” conjures up all sorts of images…many pretty unpleasant. How many atrocities have been done in the name of Christ? Large and small, horrible things have been done in the name of the rabbi from Nazareth.
So yes it can be very uncomfortable to claim ourselves as followers of Christ, as Christians; not only because of the residue of the intolerant right wing fundamentalists but also because...well....it's uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.
It’s way easier to live as Christians out there yet only proclaim it in here.
Last year, a parishioner said to me, “I like your sermons a lot but I’m uncomfortable with how often you mention Jesus. I’m really more comfortable with God.”
Now at first blush this may seem insulting and offensive, but I get it. Many of us are much more comfortable with the idea, the concept of God rather than the person of Jesus. And therein lies the point---God can remain an ethereal, imaginative concept while Jesus is an actual guy. Who did things. And said things. And expects things. And who will, one day, come back. He’s tangible.
Lots of us avoid and ignore him…not because we aren't fans, not because we aren't faithful believers, but because….well that’s what “those “ people do—the fundamentalist intolerant crowd. We’re more stately, more reserved than that, aren’t we? Yes we’re pretty good at living our faith, but we stink at proclaiming it outside these doors. I mean, how many of us will stand up and be counted as Christian?
Early last week I read an opinion piece in the New York Times written by the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder entitled, “Who Will Stand up for the Christians?” In it Lauder outlines the atrocities being committed against Christians in the Middle East and Africa. He writes, “The Middle East and parts of central Africa are losing entire Christian communities that have lived in peace for centuries.” Just last week Boko Haram destroyed---I mean obliterated—the predominantly Christian town of Gwoza in northeastern Nigeria; half a million Christian Arabs have been driven out of Syria, in the past three years, the Christians of Palestine are shrinking before our eyes and we all know what’s been happening to the Christians of Iraq. Christianity is being systematically wiped out in the land of Christ….and yet….where’s our outrage? Here we have a Jewish man standing up for Christianity, which is wonderful, honorable and appreciated. But where are we? Why aren’t we standing up for Christianity?
When you describe yourself, is Christian one of the first things you say you are? Shouldn’t it be? After all isn’t your faith THE guiding principle of your life? Aren’t the values we espouse week in and week out right here the linchpin of who you are and what you do?
While the shrinking of Christianity in the Middle East and Africa is due to intolerance, in the western world, especially in Europe and the US, it’s because of indifference.
Who do we say we are?
Isn’t it time for us to say, loud and clear, who we are. Yes we are Episcopalians, yes we are members of GS/ASC. But we are these things because we are Christians.
Isn’t it time we reclaimed Christianity from those who played fast and loose with the integrity of our faith?
Isn’t it time we begin to talk about our faith?
Isn’t it about time we became proud to be and to live as a Christian?
Isn’t it about time that when we say we are Christian people understand that this means love and inclusion not hate and exclusion?
Isn’t it about time we came up with language to tell people just who we are, who Jesus is, and how Jesus is at the center of our life?
Isn’t it about time we felt compelled, driven and drawn to expressing our faith in a way that was honest and true?
Isn’t it about time?
Jesus says, who do you say I am?
I say, who do we say we are?
We have our creeds, our affirmations of faith. We have our catechism, the outline of faith.
But who DO YOU SAY Jesus is and who DO YOU say you are, in relation to Jesus Christ?
I have a suggestion—write it down. Write down who Jesus is to you. Write down what you’d like people to know about Jesus, about God and about the Holy Spirit. But don’t cheat Jesus…give him his due.
I’d love it if you shared those thoughts with me. I think this could make for the beginning of a great conversation.
Not sure where to begin? Not sure how to claim this faith as your own? [talk to Pete or to me. We'd gladly sit with you to discuss finding a language of faith understandable out in the world] Beginning September 14 from 9 am -9:40 am I will be meeting with people to discuss just what it is we believe. I urge you to attend…if you can’t attend because of choir rehearsal or teaching Sunday School,[you can also join us at GS ] attend the Tuesday evening Eucharist and Bible study it’s a great place to wrestle with these questions.
  Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith. God is the overarching presence and the Holy Spirit is what gets us moving, but it is the namesake of our faith, Jesus Christ, a full and complete human who is also fully and completely God, who makes us who we are. Shouldn’t we be comfortable mentioning him? Shouldn’t we be able to express who he is? And shouldn’t He be a major part of who we are and who we intend to be?
Who DO we say we are?
Amen.