Epiphany 6, Feb 16 2014 Deacon Pete's sermon

Laws are funny things.  They are meant to help us live together, meant to help keep the peace, meant to improve society by setting common limits and expectations. You know the old quote, "fences make good neighbors".  We can substitute the word "laws" for fences, culturally approved and practiced laws are supposed to make good neighbors. But....sometimes laws are not such good things, not things that uplift us and make us better people, better neighbors.
For example in New Orleans it is against the law to gargle in public. In Minnesota women may face 30 days in jail for impersonating Santa Claus. In Marion, Oregon ministers are forbidden to eat garlic or onions before delivering a sermon.  In restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee it is illegal to take unfinished pie home, all pie must be eaten on the premises.  We would be hard pressed to believe and claim that these laws do anything to improve our culture, enhance our community , or benefit our families.
Today's Gospel continues our readings from the Sermon on the Mount. In this section Jesus looks looks at three of the commandments given by God to Moses for the benefit of the Hebrew people, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not swear falsely.  Last year when Mother Cathy preached on the commandments she called them the 10 Best Ways to Live. And indeed, that's what they were meant to be.  Jesus  has some interesting commentary on those ancient proscriptions.  He introduces each law with the phrase "you have heard that it was said". He then quotes the commandment " you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not swear falsely". And he continues with "but I say..."  And what he says after each commandment sets Jesus apart from all of the Old Testament prophets that those gathered were used to hearing from.
Jesus knew that it was possible to abide by the letter of the law and still wreak havoc on the lives of others .  Most of us will never be murders, adulterers or perjurers.  Jesus is saying that's not good enough. Obeying the bare bones restrictions of the laws isn't good enough. Jesus says that to follow Him we must shift our focus from the letter of the law and focus on the realm of the heart .  We are called to uphold the dignity and humanity of our companions in this world, not just to avoid killing .  We are called to treat each other with respect, to listen closely and to not speak hateful words that are insults, gossip or back-stabbing or just plain false. We are to recognize the humanity of others and work toward reconciliation whenever possible.
Likewise we cannot just avoid the betrayal of adultery.  We are called to avoid objectifying people and turning them into nothing more than objects for our own pleasure and satisfaction, to not treat others as property to be discarded when we are finished with them.
Jesus is giving us what we in education would call "best practices".  Like a good special educator, Jesus goes far beyond just naming the problem.  All of the students I work with have something called Individual Educational Plans, IEPs for short. They include a description of the student, for example, Johnny is an angry, disruptive and defiant young man. Then we must write a goal that addresses Johnny's behavior.  The goal must be written positively and include what it is we would like Johnny to do instead.  So, I can't write a goal that says Johnny will not be disruptive. My goal has to say something like Johnny will identify anger triggers and implement strategies including deep breathing, positive self talk and removing himself from the situation when he begins to feel angry. The goal is deeper and wider than merely stating behavior what is off limits, it includes calling for behavior that will not only help Johnny be a better person and a better neighbor, but will also enhance the communities Johnny is a member of.
And that's what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is not lacking in respect for the law given in the Hebrew Scriptures. He is not saying that the laws are worthless or wrong.  No, Jesus believes in the real and ongoing presence of God and wants that presence, that nurturing spirit, that grace to be more clearly recognized than just the "shall nots".  Jesus knows that giving folks rules without specifying what kingdom worthy behavior is just isn't good enough. He wants us to understand that the rules are not just meant to list behaviors that are not acceptable, but are meant to help us develop practices of the heart that will lead us into developing God's kingdom here on earth. Jesus turns the "shall nots" into strategies for living differently in the world.
And that's the real point of the Sermon on the Mount passages, Jesus showing us how to live differently, in a counter-cultural way; not merely obeying laws but discovering how to be a member of the community of believers.  Jesus wants an inwardly transformed person, not an outwardly obedient one.
Gathered here as a community we are called to be the learning lab where this inward transformation can take place. That's where prayer, bible study, worship, ministry to others, and above all the nourishment of the Eucharist will take us; to a place where we go beyond rules to truly loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Feb 9 2014 Epiphany 5 One Branch, One Tree at a Time

Bette Midler has a pet peeve.
It’s plastic bags that get caught in the branches of the trees in NYC’s parks. Plastic bags in trees drives me nuts too, so when I saw an article about “Bette Midler’s Bag Snagger crews,” I was intrigued.
It’s a pretty simple routine: people see bags snarled high up in trees and they call a hotline number with the location. Every day a crew of four heads out in to the city with one purpose, find and snag as many bags as they can in a day. They estimate it takes, on average, 10 minutes to free a tree of their bags.
 Do the math; their work may never be finished. NYC has a lot of trees and even more plastic bags; there will always be more bags to unsnag.
But that’s ok, the point isn’t to lament that the work will never be done; the point is to do the work as best they can, branch by branch, tree by tree, day by day.
One branch, one tree at a time.
It’s simple isn’t it?
One person noticed a problem and used her gifts, in this case a love for NYC’s parks, (plus money and influence,) to address the problem and in the process, each and every day, New York City gets a little more beautiful.
Of course, Bette Midler could have taken on the grocery, drug and other retail stores in NYC and demanded they stop using plastic bags hoping that eventually the problem would be eradicated because the plastic bag itself would be extinct. That’s a huge job and not even a woman with the money and the influence of a famous entertainer could hope to get it done anytime soon. Now, I don’t know, she may be working on this aspect of the problem too, but the fact is, she didn’t wait, she took her gifts and put them to work right away.
The result? In NYC, one branch at a time, one tree at a time, the world is being changed.
Lasting change is like that, steady and methodical, step by step, branch by branch, tree by tree.
Ellen Bard is an author who has a blog entitled “tinybuddha: simple wisdom for complex lives.”
She recently posted an article called: “3 simple small acts of kindness that can make someone’s day,” begins with this Oscar Wilde quotation: “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” One can intend to eradicate plastic bags from all the trees in NYC, but it’s accomplished one branch at a time, one tree at a time.

In the article Ellen shares the following anecdote:
“On a bad day recently, rushing down the road in Chiang Mai, Thailand, late for an appointment, I dropped my bag and things spilled all over the road. I looked at my possessions, spread out in the dust beneath me and held back tears. As I stood there, a Thai woman, tending a food cart at the side of the road, walked over and carefully helped me pick everything up. Then she smiled, patted my hand, and walked back to her stall.”
The Thai woman didn’t have the gift of money or power. But she sure did have the gift of kindness. And that kindness made all the difference in the world on that particular day, in that specific moment, for the author.
One branch at a time, one tree at a time, by using our gifts, we can change the world.
This is what Jesus is talking about in today’s excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world right after blessing those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, right after telling everyone within earshot that the world God envisions is not ruled by powers and dominions but by the meek and the humble; that the world, as God envisions it, is a world of love and justice and peace which is brought to fruition through regular old people. Folks like you and me.
We are God’s instruments, we are the salt that enhances God’s flavor, we are the filament that increases God’s light in this world.  We all have gifts that contribute to the world God envisions, the world Jesus preaches about, we just have to use them.
Not using them is akin to hiding them under a basket.
Not acknowledging them is akin to denying them.
And it’s that very thing---hiding and denying all that we’ve been given by virtue of God’s abundant extravagant and never-ending Love---which frustrates and saddens God.
You see, all God wants us to do is to use our gifts—whatever they may be—to show people that God is Love and that this Love that is God is for everyone, everywhere, forever and always.
It’s not rocket science folks:
  We are Loved and Jesus compels us to share this Love. Because when we do that, when we expose the Love of God through our acts of simple yet profound kindness, Love spreads and strengthens and grows.
And that’s the point.
We salt this earth and lighten this world, by Loving the unloveable, by embracing the untouchable and by standing up for those who have been knocked down.
One branch at a time, one tree at a time.
It’s simple wisdom folks:
Is there something wrong in our corner of the world? We have the power to do something about it.
We may not, in one fell swoop, be able to eradicate disease, eliminate hunger or stop all war. We may not, in one grand gesture, be able to cure global warming, stop graft and corruption or guarantee every child in this world the safety and security they deserve, but we can, one branch at a time, one tree at a time, one simple act of human kindness at a time change the world.
Amen.

The Presentation Feb 2, 2014

For the last time this year: Merry Christmas! You see, in many ways, today is the end of Christmas. As I emailed on Thursday, the Presentation is a turning point in the church year as the focus shifts from the manger toward the cross, from the wonder of "God among us" to the wonder of God defeating death via the Resurrection.
8 o clock attendee and icon writer Doug Bobak knew how much I loved the Gospel for today do he wrote this as a gift to me. The story of The Presentation is also in our Tiffany window.
What I love about Doug’s icon is the look in Mary’s eyes. It's a combination of surprise, fear and wonder. No doubt she was hoping all the strange events: the angel, the magi, the heavenly hosts, had ended and that life would return to normal.
Of course, there's nothing normal about the Savior of the world.
But things did settle a bit: The angels went back to normal angel activity. The sun rose in the morn­ing and set in the evening. The shepherds continued to pasture their flocks....  Jesus did what babies do—he ate he cried he slept he grew-life continued its usual course, just as if nothing had happened.On the eighth day, according to Jewish law, he was circumcised and named.
And then, On the fortieth day after Jesus' birth the Holy Family traveled  to Jerusalem to complete the purification, presentation and sacrifice traditions expected of every Jewish family... It was the expected, the normal thing to do.
 But there's nothing normal about this story, is there?
The trip down to Jerusalem was unremarkable---no one noticed them, no one paid any attention to the baby they held. The baby who will save the world. They entered the temple and offered the usual sacrifice for poor people, two doves.  The priest approached them and automatically laid his hands on Jesus, as if this was just another first born son. He noticed nothing special about this child, Jesus was just one among many, it was a regular, ordinary day.
But then an older priest, eccentric at best, crazy at worst, burst onto the scene and headed straight to Mary and Joseph. He knew who this child was! He knew, deep in his bones, that this was the One for whom he yearned, the one for whom all of Israel had yearned: the Anointed, the Messiah. For decades, Simeon had been praying that he would live to see the coming of the Messiah and every day Simeon heard God say, "not today, but soon." On this particular day, Simeon didn't hear "not today", on this particular day Simeon heard-- "go and see, He is Here!" Rushing to the Temple, Simeon zeroed in on the Holy Family. And, without even realizing how bizarre the whole scene was, Mary offered the baby to Simeon.
Simeon, overcome with joy, with Jesus in his arms,  praises God by saying:
"Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised. For these eyes of mine have seen the savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see; a Light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel.” (Nunc dimittis).
Why does our focus shift, after today, from Christmas and the manger to Good Friday, the cross and the tomb?
Because of one clause in this hymn: "a savior for the whole,world--- A light to enlighten the nations.” This messiah was not just for Israel, no this Messiah was for all the world to see. This simple phrase in a song of praise sets in motion all that leads to Calvary--- Jesus was here, Jesus is here, for everyone, always, no exceptions. Not just Jew, but Gentile too. Not just us, but them. Not just you, but me, not just some but all. Simeon professed what Mary would learn, what she would endure, what she would see. Simeon announced what the world was not yet able to bear: Love had arrived. For everyone forever.
In the icon Mary's  eyes reveal the truth: Through this child The strong will weaken and the weak will strengthen. The world will get turned inside out and upside down.
And her precious Son, God in the flesh, will be nailed to a tree.
Young Mary knew what Simeon predicted was true: the world that had longed for the Messiah, yearned for Him would , in the end, be unable to bear the reality of Him. That the darkness that feeds our fear, fuels our doubts and tries to deaden our souls would kill that Love and pierce her heart on the darkest Friday of all time.
How she must have longed to keep that knowledge buried for awhile longer, how she must have longed to get out of that temple and home to Nazareth where Jesus could just be another boy.
But before they could leave another character enters the scene:the 84 year old widow and permanent resident of the Temple, Anna. Although she may not have known what she was looking for, when Anna saw Jesus she knew she'd found it. Anna, like Simeon, sang about this great wonder, but, unlike Simeon, who wandered off to rejoice in private, Anna told everyone she met that the Messiah was finally here.
On this day 2000 yrs ago and today, the word is out, the die is cast. The strong will weaken the weak will strengthen and Love will take it's earthly journey until, overcome with fear and doubt, we will do everything we can to snuff it out, to stop it, to stop Him in his tracks. It's a reality none us like or want to admit. But it is a fact of our faith.
We,  along with Mary and Joseph, along with Anna and Simeon, along with Jesus, have embarked on a journey that began at the manger, travels to the temple, the shores of Galilee, the gardens of Gethsemene, the dusty despair of Calvary, the depths of death to emerge, at the last, into the amazing victory of Light, life and Love on Easter morn.  This journey's not  easy, but by taking it we will, along with Simeon and Anna will, at the end, be truly free.