Pentecost 6 Yr. A and Baptism : A gaggle of angels sweeping out the weeds of darkness

As has become my tradition, when we have a baptism at any of our three services on a Sunday, the sermon is in the form of a letter to the baptized. Today at the 10:30 we baptize Jaxon Carter Bidell.

Dear Jaxon:
Darkness is not dark to you, the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike.
This is a line from our psalm for today—psalms are poems written to God. Today’s is like a love poem to God. You see for God, there isn’t any darkness at all. With God there’s only light. That’s why we have that big candle lit next to the baptismal font today. The candles and the water and the prayers of baptism are all outward and visible signs of this amazing grace within you---a grace that is full of truth and light. A grace that was given to you by God at your birth---with God’s kiss of grace you were filled with light and love and truth and peace. It’s a good thing that God fills us with such things at our birth, because the world that we’re born into? Well it isn’t always full of grace and truth and light. Sometimes, Jax, it’s full of doubt and fear and encroaching darkness. Your mommy and daddy, your Godparents, your big brothers and this whole community of faith will do everything in our power to keep the darkness from affecting you, but sometimes, in this world, in this life, it seeps in and overtakes.
But DON’T WORRY! It’s ok, that’s what this whole baptism thing is about.  Your baptism…the actual pouring of holy water over your head, the vows your parents, godparents and all of us here will take, the other promises we’ll make, they’re all designed to surround you with a safety net.
Kind of like when you were born. You were born in a hurry and needed help and support to get used to being out in the world instead of safely in the womb. There were all sorts of people there for you—not only your parents, but doctors, nurses, technicians---all working to help you get used to being here. All making sure that nothing bad happened to you.
That’s what baptism is all about---we promise, as a community of faith, to protect you, help you, encourage you, support you, pray for you. Forever.
It’s pretty cool!
But there’s more!
You see not only are we committed to protect, help, encourage, support and pray for you, forever, but SO IS GOD, and all of the saints in heaven and on earth. Everyone who loves God also loves you.
Yep, it’s true. We can’t LOVE GOD without also LOVING EVERYONE ELSE, including, and today most especially, YOU.
Our first reading is all about this wonderful man Jacob who had a really weird dream one night (I’m not surprised that he had an odd dream, after all his pillow was a ROCK, that couldn’t have been too comfortable). Anyway in his dream he saw this ladder---it extended from earth all the way up to heaven and on that ladder was a whole gaggle of angels, running up and down...
reaching down to the earth and back up to the heavens.
Over and over again God is sending us help—reinforcements, friends, companions for the journey. Why? Because God never wants us to feel alone.
God says it to Jacob right there in that dream, “Know that I am with you and will keep you, wherever you go…I will not leave you…
Jaxon, God will never leave you, and neither will we. Whether we see you regularly for the rest of your life or not, we will always be with you. Since 1888 A LOT of people have been baptized here, hundreds, thousands of people have had the sacred waters of baptism poured over them right here, and you know what? Each and everyone one is part of this family. We’ll always be here for you. Always, always, always. We, just like that army of angels on Jacob’s ladder, will be here. For you. Forever.
 But..there’s still more!
As a baptized Christian, which is exactly who you’re becoming today, you not only receive a lot, but you’re expected to give a lot. Of course, you’ve already given A LOT. You’ve brought untold joy to your parents, grandparents, aunts uncles, godparents friends…even your brothers! But, there’s more for you to do. There’s more for all of us to do ---the joy, peace and light that fills this place today is very threatening to the forces of darkness in the world. OK, “forces of darkness” sounds pretty ominous and scary doesn’t it? Some people will call the darkness the devil, others will call it the Evil One; I just call it darkness. There’s a big fight happening in creation--- the joy and peace and light of God is forever challenged by the fear, anger and darkness of Not God. Your job, as you grow, is to always and forever remember that you’re a beloved child of God and that as this beloved child of God you, too MUST share the joy and peace, light and love of God with all whom you encounter.
That’s what that silly story Jesus tells in today’s Gospel is all about---God loves us all, no exceptions, but some of us can’t accept that love, we just can’t let it fill us and surround us and grow between us. It’s up to us---all of us, you included, to love the world so much, to love God so much, to love everyone so much, that the weeds of darkness,  the weeds of the fearful, the weeds of the naysayers and the weeds of the angry are all swept away by and through our faith, our hope and our joy.
Welcome to this good and holy work Jaxon. We’re so glad you’re here.
Amen.

Pentecost 5 Proper 10 Yr A Jacob and Esau, You and Me: the Mess through which God Works

[this sermon is heavily based on Rick Morley’s blog post on Genesis 25 written in 2011 and accessed  through Rick Morley’s: A Garden Path www.rickmorley.com]
Have you ever been over at a friend’s house and they get into a spat with their spouse or their parents, or their kids? What begins as a little dust up turns into a larger argument and you just want to shrink away, embarrassed that you’re witnessing their “dirty laundry?” Sometimes, when reading the “family stories” of Genesis I’m feel the same way.
Adam and Eve gets us started off on the wrong foot, then their son Cain murders his brother Abel. Then we get Noah (a very unlikely person to save the world from the flood to end all floods), Abraham and Sarah who, as Pete mentioned a couple of weeks ago, weren’t candidates for the parent of the year award and finally, today, a grown up Isaac and his wife, Rebekah whose twin boys are born fighting!
Jacob and Essau are very different people with very different personalities, very different world-views and very different connections to their birthright. Hard to believe they’re related at all, let alone twins! Like their forebears Cain and Abel, one is refined and the other is a brute. Not that anything is wrong with either of those two, it just seems that, biblically speaking, that’s a bad combination.
A tragic combination.
Here’s what we need to remember about our Bible stories---they weren’t written down as they happened--- they were tales told over campfires, passed down through the generations long before they were ever written down. In these stories, the tragedy is relentlessly tragic and the comedy is overwhelmingly funny [if we can get past their stilted and stained-glass English translations.]
But, to really get the joke (and the insults) of this story we need to take a look ahead, to the nations each man established. Esau is the father of the Edomites, folks who lived just south of the Dead Sea in the land of Edom. Jacob fathered the people who became ancient Israel, the Israelites. Needless to say, neither nation had much use for the other. Most famously, it was the Edomites who refused to give the Israelites passage through their land as they ran for their lives after escaping Pharaoh’s tyranny in Egypt.
The Israelites and the Edomites did not like each other.
One thing about telling stories over a campfire—they need to hold interest, they need to have some spice to them. Obviously the cartoonish differences between Esau and Jacob were part of the oral tradition that the descendants of Jacob, the Israelites, told to laugh at the descendants of Esau, the Edomites. The punch-line is that the great-great-grand-daddy of the Edomites was a hairy, brutish, dunce who sold his most valuable possession for a bowl full of bean stew, what Esau refers to as “red stuff.”
You better believe that always got a raucous laugh every time that line was fed out over the crackle of the bonfire.
In the big picture, this is more of a story of two nations and their distaste of the other. Like a good college basketball rivalry, the legend is bigger and better than the reality.
As long as you’re on the winning side.
My guess is that the Edomites had similar stories that they told around their campfires. Maybe they were about how much of a mama’s boy Jacob was.
Regardless, it’s the dysfunction of this family that peaked the interest of this former psychotherapist. Holy Cow!
Think about how much energy we spend projecting to the world–and certainly to the neighbors–that our family, our home is “normal.” That everything is all right.
But here’s the truth, our lives aren’t always hunky dory. We have our share of dysfunction and embarrassing behavior. And that’s ok, because
our lives don’t need to be neat and tidy and holy for God to do God’s work.
Things can be awful and embarrassingly messy–and God can still move. God can still do great things. And God does.
Here’s what we can learn from these stories of dysfunction replete throughout our sacred scripture: God does things---amazing, incredible, astounding things-- through the lives of the strangest and most awkward of people.
When the God looked out over the whole world to find people to carry God’s message--God chose what often times looks like the “b” team. The ones who behave badly, the ones who rebel and reject, the ones who doubt and despair and dither about.
God chose people—Just. Like. Us.
And deep down between all the guffaws and mockery of the campfire, that’s the message that our forebears got night-in and night-out: We don’t have to be perfect and have everything figured out and in flawless order before God can visit us, and bless us.
In fact, we can, in the midst of our reality—the good the bad and the ugly-- be a blessing to the whole world.
If God can work through the wacky households of Genesis, then God can work with us too!
The lesson here is clear---you don’t need to get your house in order before inviting God in. You don’t have to put on your Sunday best before inviting God in. You don’t have to look good, act well, or be polite and neat and orderly to invite God in.
Don’t wait for the right time, don’t wait for a better time. Open your life, dysfunctional, messy, loud and crazy as it is, to God. Invite God in, and don’t worry, God won’t be shocked, for God as seen it all.
Amen.

July 6 2014 "An Unalienable right to want everyone to be free."

The Declaration of Independence, the baptismal covenant and the song, “This is My Song,” [which is in your service inserts] [that we will sing at the offertory] [that we just sang].
What do they have in common?
Justice for all, forever. No exceptions.
Of course, we can debate the finer points of our national documents, and I have no need to be make the church a place of political discourse. But the commonalities between the prose that outlines who we are as Americans and who we are as Episcopalians are, to my mind, striking.  Our Independence Day is about acknowledging and thanking our forebears for having the guts to stand up against oppression and our Baptismal covenant is a call to strive for justice and peace in all that we do. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence outlined the fundamental beliefs---truths--- upon which this nation was founded.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…
In support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
A government for the people and by the people designed to secure freedom for all. We aren’t there yet, but these are the words that drive our nation as we continue to evolve into what the founding people of this nation envisioned.

Anyone who is part of an Episcopal Church-  especially anyone who has studied for confirmation or reception since 1979 and anyone who has been baptized in the church in the last 35 years, knows the beauty of the language in our Baptismal Covenant. I preach it all the time....we are, as members of this faith, as followers of God....sworn to uphold the dignity of every human being. Always. No exceptions.
In our baptismal covenant we vow to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ
We vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
We vow to strive for justice and peace among all people.
It is this notion, that every single human being has unalienable rights to pursue happiness, to love their God and to care for their neighbors as themselves, that connects the celebration of our country with our faith. Yes, this country was founded on Christian principles. But, and this is where so many of us get lost, those principles--by their very nature --don’t exclude others. As a matter of fact, it’s a complete misinterpretation of our foundation as a country and our foundational beliefs as Christians to think that excluding anyone from their rights as human beings, is, at anytime, ok.
It is not.
For some of you the hymn [in your bulletins] [we will sing at the offertory] [just sang] may be unfamiliar.
But, it is one of the best patriotic songs I’ve ever heard. It addresses the fundamental belief of us as Christians and us as Americans: that respecting the dignity of every human being and striving for---demanding and working to ensure---justice for all, forever isn’t just a slogan, it’s a way of life.
Sung to the tune Finlandia the hymn says this:
“This is my song, O god of ALL the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine; this is my home, the country where my heart is: here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine; but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine…O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”
On this Independence day weekend may we all remember that our country and our faith was founded on principles of certain unalienable rights, and that we, as human beings who are bound to God through oath and vow, must, in all we do, preserve the rights of all people everywhere to live in freedom and tranquility, to be able to worship God as they understand God without fear or danger.
May we all, on this weekend of independence, remember that as long as any human being remains in bondage of any sort—in our country or in others, we cannot rest. For it is our moral and sacred duty to live out the principles of this our country and of this our faith that all people, always and forever, deserve to be free.
Amen.