We. Here. Now: Sow with Tears and Reap with Joy Proper 25 Yr B Oct 25 2015

+We have several references to tears in today’s readings. I suppose that’s fitting, since, by now I hope you’ve all received the letter announcing my intention to resign my position as rector, effective December 31, 2015. The discernment Pete and I entered in to reach this decision, and the discernment you now find yourselves in, can lead to the shedding of many a tear. I certainly didn’t plan it this way, but the readings for today--- readings about being lost and being found, being blind and then being able to see, readings about tears of sorrow being transformed into shouts of joy—all of these are helpful as we try to find our way in this new territory of transition and change.
When I was a seminary intern serving at St. Matthias in East Aurora their parish “slogan” was taken directly from Psalm 126:
“Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.”


I love that sentiment and have always tried to remember it as an absolute promise from God that the tears we shed today create the songs of joy we’ll sing tomorrow.
We have done some amazing things together. We’ve built new programs, we’ve filled old ones with more energy, we’ve welcomed new members and we’ve bid others farewell. As I said in my letter, the decision to leave wasn’t a decision to turn away from you it was a decision to embark on a journey toward something new and scary, something God seems to be pushing Pete and me to do. Our hearts are heavy and the tears we’ve shed have been frequent and plentiful. But those tears are tears that wouldn’t be shed if we hadn’t, over these past almost six years, [nearly 4 ½ years] shared so very much joy. Over the next 10 weeks we’ll have lots of time to celebrate what we’ve done together, to grieve our separation and to prepare ourselves for what comes next. But one thing never ever changes regardless of who is your priest: there’s work to do, a journey to continue, hope to hold onto, love to spread and God’s kingdom to live into. We are fed for this journey, strengthened for this task, encouraged for the road ahead by and through all those who have come before us…the great cloud of Good Shepherd and Ascension witnesses and those whose journeys are outlined in our sacred scripture.
Today’s readings have a lot to tell us about journeys--those into and out from exile, those that take us from blindness into sight, from who we are today to who we’ll be tomorrow.
In our reading from Jeremiah, God is offering a hymn of praise for what God is about to do---gather all the Israelites who had been dispersed north and south, east and west, all those who were cast out in the Exile--  back into the fold. We can look at this reading discretely, written to and for a specific people at a specific time, or we can read it more broadly as God singing to us, now, here:
God says, “with tears of joy they will come, while they pray, I will bring them back. I will lead them by quiet streams and on smooth paths so they don’t stumble.” God doesn’t ask us to find our own way, God doesn’t ask us to tackle the mountains of uncertainty or the shadows of doubt alone.
 God asks us to pray, for it is in prayer where we’ll find our solace, it is through prayer we find our way.
My friends, pray. Pray for this community, pray for [ascension] [gs], pray for me, pray for Pete. Pray for the drum beat of God’s love to lead us home.
In today’s Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus and his followers are on their way out of Jericho when they are way-laid by blind Bartimaeus who, upon realizing that Jesus was near called out—Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy! Jesus hears him, calls for him and suddenly old Bartimaeus can see. Seems really straight forward, right?
Well again, we can look at this reading as a basic, “man has a problem, man reaches out in faith and hope to Jesus, man is healed” story---that would be the discrete read--- or we can look at it more broadly and consider it to be a bit more than one person with one disability who has one encounter and is then healed.
You see, I don’t know if there was a person named Bartimeaus who was blind and then could see. I don’t know if there was this one person who heard that Jesus was near, identified him as the messiah and then asked him to show him mercy…there probably was…but this story isn’t just a report on an event 2K yrs ago in Jericho, this is a story for us, here, now. It’s a story for everyone, everywhere at anytime. For more than being a story of one healing, it is, instead, a story of what can happen when we are heard, really heard. When we, like Bartimaeus, speak up, reach out and go forward, we will be heard, we will be seen and we will be stronger for it. Bartimaeus called out, Jesus heard him and called him forward. Off Bartimeaus ran, tossing his coat aside, rushing through the crowd and presenting himself to Jesus, ready to receive whatever it is God, through Jesus Christ, could provide. And in that posture of receptivity, in that posture of tossing aside all that weighed him down, he was, at once, able to see.
My dear friends, do not let this change in our life together weigh you down with fear or doubt, cast off your worry, talk to me, talk to each other and most importantly talk to God. For when you speak, you will be heard, and when you look, you will most assuredly, see.
Because what I Iearned years ago and still hold onto today is this: those who sow with tears, always and forever, reap with songs of joy.
Amen.

Finding Strength in Weakness Courage in Fear Proper 24 Yr B October 18 2015

+I saw my primary care physician on Friday. We were chatting about her upcoming move to a new practice and somehow got on the subject of selfishness. She was asking me what I thought about people who are more concerned about taking care of themselves than their neighbor. “What happened to the Golden Rule?” she asked. And right there, in the exam room I realized what it was I wanted to say about today’s Gospel.
It’s easy to dismiss James and John’s demand to Jesus that they sit on his right and left side for all eternity as selfish, bodacious and arrogant. It’s easy to say, “Well, there those disciples go again…NOT GETTING IT AT ALL.”
But I don’t think that’s it-- as a matter of fact I think they acted like this because they did get it, in spades. The man they loved, the rabbi they respected, the teacher they adored had been pretty clear---he was gonna die and it was going to be up to them to “carry on.”
They had to have been freaked out, after all they had given up EVERYTHING—job, family, familiarity, safety-- to follow Jesus and yet over the course of the previous two chapters in Mark’s Gospel—chapters we have been reading since Labor Day---Jesus has predicted his death not once, not twice, but three times. “Look!” he said. “We’re going up to Jerusalem. The Human One will be handed over to the chief priests and the legal experts. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles. They will ridicule him, spit on him, torture him, and kill him. After three days, he will rise up.”
The first time he made this prediction, Peter told him he was nuts and Peter got put in his place with one exclamation of “Get Behind me Satan!” The second time he shares this prediction, several disciples get into the act and behind Jesus’ back they begin to argue about which of them will take the mantel when Jesus was gone, they wanted to know who was going to be the GREATIST.
So let’s review: first Peter hears Jesus’ prediction and tells him he’s out of his mind, making Jesus pretty mad.
Second, after hearing the next prediction, several disciples compete over who will be the greatest and Jesus responds by putting a child on his lap and reminding all within earshot that receiving the fullness of God’s grace and glory requires viewing the world through the unblemished eyes of a child.
And that brings me back to my doctor and her question about what in the world has happened to people and their selfishness.
I’ll tell you what I told her:
I think people are horribly frightened. It seems to me this has been most evident since 9/11, but I also know, from an historical perspective, that this has happened before in the world and will probably happen again: when we, as a people, become unsure, nervous, scared, we turn inward. It’s the manifestation of survival of the fittest---the world around us becomes unmoored and we dig in to protect ourselves. We look down and in instead of up and out. We become insular and focused on “me” instead of broad-minded and in tune with the world community around us.
For the last few weeks I’ve been preaching about the importance of community and what these actions of the disciples and the actions of our own fellow Americans since 9/11 suggests is that isolation isn’t about hubris, it’s about fear.  Nadia Bolz-Weber, in her most recent book, “Accidental Saints,” says this: “I’ve finally realized that trying not to need others isn’t about strength and independence, it’s about fear.”
James and John’s world is most definitely becoming unmoored. Here they are, following Jesus down to Jerusalem where he is meeting sure and certain death, things are falling apart and so, they begin to look out for themselves, to assure themselves of a place at Jesus’ side. They’re not arrogant, they’re scared.
Everything they’ve come to know is about to be destroyed. Think about, first, they are simple fishermen, working for their father Zebedee when this preacher guy comes by and offering a confusing, yet so very compelling, message, they, against any and all reason, dropped their nets and followed him. And now he’s leaving them.
Their world was inside out and upside down and they were freaked out. I so get this.
I remember the first trip to the airport after 9/11. There were armed military people everywhere. It took forever to make it through security. It felt surreal.
It was surreal.
Our world, our sense of security had been dismantled and we were, most assuredly, unmoored.
It was a very scary time.
And since then, with all the school shootings, the upsurge in racial tensions, the economy that tanked, recovered, and tanked again and now life hasn’t gotten any more steady. The world hasn’t become safer or more predictable. And so we turn inward. Just like the disciples did.
What Jesus was telling the disciples in today’s Gospel and what we really need to learn is how to find a power beyond all imagining through service, compassion and care for the other. In other words, what Jesus is telling us to do is to follow the Golden Rule—to do unto others as we wish done unto us. To look up and out from our fear and insecurity and into the eyes of the poor, hungry, oppressed, lonely,  scared, injured and the outcast.
Jesus tells us that by doing this, by being his hands and feet in the world we will, as he did with his death and resurrection, “liberate many people.”
[Tell stories:
GS Food Pantry--- liberate people with our love
School 54… liberate people with our love
Eaton Rdg Prog… liberate people with our love
ASC:
PFP….liberate people with our love
School 54….liberate people with our love
Give$$ to help a fellow parishioner…liberate people with our love]
Think about this folks:
When we really live into the last will be first and the first will be last. When we live into being a slave and servant to all we will find our true greatness. By finding Strength in Weakness and Courage in Fear we’ll find true security and endless peace. And that, my friends, is Jesus’ point.. Amen.

Two sermons on 1 day: at Good Shepherd, "Loosen Your Grip and Let God In" At Ascension: Be seen. Be Loved. And watch that camel squeeze! Proper 23 Yr B October 11, 2015

Sermon 1:

+ Have you ever tried to receive communion with clenched hands and a closed mouth? It can’t be done!

I think it’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for us to receive the gifts of God through clenched teeth, clenched hands and clenched hearts.

Because, to fully receive the Gifts of God, we must be open, receptive and willing to let go of everything: our fear, our worry, our doubt and, as Jesus told the man in today’s Gospel, our possessions.

Everything. Because without open-ness and willingness, we can't fully receive God; without open-ness and willingness the Gifts of God will fall to the floor, discarded, unused, and unappreciated.

“Jesus said, ‘You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor.’”

When the man heard this, when Peter and the rest of the disciples heard this, when we hear this, we’re all very sad.

Sad because we think, like the man and the disciples thought, it means giving up the stuff we like—kind of like giving up chocolate for Lent—but I don’t think that’s it at all. I think we’re shocked, dismayed, and sad because of the realization that no matter how much we’ve said we love Jesus, how much we’ve insisted that we’ve turned our lives over to the care of God, we really haven’t. Because to completely turn our life over to God, to completely believe all that Jesus is saying, to be willing to live as God wants us to live, we must discard all that stands in our way. And frankly, a lot stands in our way…

But hear me clearly—Jesus isn’t telling us to become destitute, he’s not saying that having stuff---even being wealthy--- is BAD, it’s when we allow the stuff of life—our material possessions, our petty jealousies, our worries, our fears, to get in the way of God’s love for us, as given to us, through Jesus Christ we’re not living the life God intends for us.

 Jesus is saying, open those hands, unclench those teeth and let me in.

Jesus is telling us that what stands in the way of our spiritual health, are our attachments. To make his point Jesus references the material attachments the man had---his stuff--- But if you read more carefully, what Jesus is suggesting isn’t a pauper’s existence, or a life of scarcity but rather, a life of richness, abundance, and love. That is, a life that begins and ends and dwells in God. A life where we remember that all Love flows from God. That our love of spouse, parents, children, friends, fellow parishioners all comes from God. Jesus wants us to remember that to fully receive the love that surpasses all understanding is to be receptive. And to be receptive, we must be unencumbered, open and willing to receive all manifestations of God's love available to us. The only way to be in this receptive stance is to trust God to help us through the worry and the doubt and the clenched hands and teeth of life in this world.

Which is precisely Jesus’ point.

Those things that close us up and shut us down; those things that distract us, those things that color all that we do-- the worries of our lives---these are the things that keep us from entering into the fullness of God’s Love. When our fear takes center stage, we block out God. When our worry takes center stage, we block out God, when our fretting takes center stage we block out God.

God’s love is abundant, it's expansive, it's never ending and it is available to us, all of us, all the time, no matter what. As long as we’re open and attentive enough to let God in!

When we live in a constant state of fear, scarcity, and worry, we can’t receive the gifts, we block all the love that's constantly, abundantly flowing from God. And then? Then it's easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle then for us to take our rest in the Love that is God.

Jesus gave us this parable for the same reason he gives us all the parables: to turn our thinking inside out and upside down. To make us question everything, to make us confused, to make us dizzy to cause us to lose our way. And that’s good.

The way of THIS world, more often than not, leads us to a place of worry, scarcity, and loss, a place of closing and clenching.

While God’s way, the way that seems so illogical, the Way that at times seems so impossible, the Way that, frankly, at times seems down right irresponsible is the Only Way.

This week marks the beginning stewardship campaigns across the church. It's when rectors and stewardship committees try to come up with just the right catch phrase and theme to garner the greatest gain. GS' letters went out earlier in the week, Ascension's are available today. There's no catchy or idyllic theme. Nope, this year we’re simply focusing on how God's love is manifested to us through our communities of faith. We're asking folks to consider what it is they love about Good Shepherd and Ascension and then, out of that stance of Love and gratitude, to make their commitment to the church for the coming year.

This year is, simply, a love and gratitude drive. This year we trust that, as a community, we’ll act as Jesus has taught us: we’ll detach from worry, from doubt, from sadness. This year we’ll open our hands, unclench our teeth and welcome the crazy Love from which all other love emanates: God. I believe that if we do this---if we approach the future of our two faith communities—from a stance of openness and willingness, from a place of gratitude and love, miracles, like camels sneaking through the eye of a needle, will occur.

Amen.

Sermon 2:

OK, so this Gospel reading is one of those that creates groans across all of Christendom. It’s as if the designers of the lectionary thought, “well October is the month when most churches hold their stewardship drives, so let’s give ‘em a reading that talks about the evils of wealth.” And you know what, I’m sure it does sound like that, but that’s really not what Jesus was saying. As a matter of fact, Jesus just uses the man’s “stuff”—his possessions-- to make a point about how God’s unending gift of Love, given repeatedly, freely and abundantly by God will just lie on the ground, unused and rejected unless we ACCEPT it. Unless we receive it. This reading is about all of us accepting God’s Love, Receiving God’s grace, opening ourselves up to all that God offers.

The point Jesus makes is that it’s our stuff—both material and, more importantly, spiritual, emotional and mental stuff that BLOCKS us from receiving what God offers us. Jesus is imploring us: let go, release, open up and LET ME IN.

 Jesus knows, God knows that which we don’t---we are stuck…so very stuck. It’s why I love the line: Jesus looked at him carefully and Loved him.” It’s as if Jesus, by looking, really looking, at the man sees all the hurt, worry, fretting, fear, longing that is blocking him from seeing the love all around him, from receiving all the love available to him.

 Jesus is really onto something here. Pete and I have just begun a major purging of our belongings. Handling two households is very difficult and we spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with the “stuff” in both houses. So we’ve begun to clean out, throw out and lighten our load. And even though I wouldn’t consider us rich, I do consider the amount of stuff we have obscene. And so out a lot of it is going. And you know what, the more we do the purging of material possessions, the more open and free I feel spiritually.. We have a long way to go, and we have some decisions to make about how we can better simplify our life, but I al a true believer that giving ourselves elbow room to breathe both physically and spiritually, gives the Holy Spirit a whole lot more room in which to work in and through us all.

 Think about what you really love. I mean really love? IS it your car, your TV, your stove? Is it the perfect shirt, pants or suit jacket? I doubt it. I think what you really love isn’t any THING. I think love is all about people. We love people. We love one another. We love this parish, we love our spouses, our children, our parents, our friends, our pets. We love a gorgeous blue sky, we love a giggle of a baby, we love the glory of a wonderful piece of music, art or literature. We love people and what people create much more than anything we can buy. This is what Jesus is talking about, this is what Jesus is telling us to do…to let go of the stuff that surrounds us---the material, the spiritual and the emotional stuff that distracts us, that fills us, that overwhelms us----and let God in.

 So how do we do that? How do we, as they say in 12 step groups, Let Go and Let God? How do we give up our fears, our anger, our depression, our petty jealousies, our disappointment, our sense of loss? How do we let all that go?

 By letting ourselves to be really really seen by God.

By presenting ourselves to Jesus, just like the man in today’s Gospel so that Jesus can grasp us by the shoulders, gaze into our eyes, and LOVE us. This is what we need, each and everyone of us more than anything else: to accept, to receive to allow ourselves to be washed over in God’s gracious, abundant, never ending, no strings attached, Love.

 God is Love. All love—the love we have for our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends, our church---all love comes from and through God. There is no love without God there is no God without Love. So the message from Jesus is: let yourself be loved. Let that Love fill you to overflowing. Let that love, envelope you, let that Love overtake you, for it is n and through that Love that all things will be well.

 So, today, as you have been given the good the bad and the ugly of our financial situation at Ascension as we ask you to think long and hard about what it is you can give to this parish so we can continue our ministry, we ask that you consider one thing, above all else: Love. How love manifests itself in this place, how the love of this church has helped you through the good times and the bad, how the Love of God as shown by and through Ascension, gives you hope for the future.. We don’t ask you because we’re greedy, we ask you because Ascension as we know is not an address, a building or a concept. It is us. Here. Now

 Some people thought the surviaval of Ascension was as unlikely as a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle and yet, here we are.

Amen.

That which God has created we don’t get to destroy Proper 22 (mass shooting in Oregon) Oct 4, 2015

+I had an idea for a sermon this week. I was going to talk about marriage, about companionship, about how we, as human beings, are designed to live in community; that it’s, as God says in Genesis, not good for the human to be alone.
I had an idea that I would connect our need for being in community with another to St Francis Day and how our need for connection extends to other species, that our animal companions bring us such joy in their unconditional love of us that a day to celebrate them is a right and good thing to do.
I was going to preach on this truth: God’s creation was, at the outset, perfect and our job, as God’s foot soldiers in this world, is to do everything in our power to return this world to the perfection that was the Garden of Eden.
But then there was another mass shooting. There was another incident where innocent people, gathered in community—this time it was another school---were struck down by a maniac wielding, in this instance, six guns.
We received alerts on our phones, we heard special reports on TV and radio and once again our hearts were broken.
We saw our President reach the end of his rope.
We heard the gun lobby respond.
We heard other politicians say how saddened they were and how their prayers were with the victims and their families.
We prayed.
We cried.
And then we went on with our lives.
We went to work, to school, shopping, out to dinner, we did the laundry, cleaned the house, ran errands.
Our lives were briefly interrupted by the 24- hour news cycle trying to connect the dots of how this could happen again.

And then life went on.
For us.
For Roseburg, Oregon life is also going on, but it will never be the same.
And for the families of the 9 dead, for the families of the injured, for the family of the perpetrator, life is also going on, but will never be the same.
Neither should ours.
For the 40th time this year, and the 141st time since the Sandy Hook massacre, on December 14, 2012, a gunman has opened fire in a school….Heidi Stevens, in a column published in the Chicago Tribune describes how routine “active shooter drills” have become in the lives of her children:
At 6 and 9, my kids haven't known a school year without lockdowns, and they likely never will.
They know gunmen routinely open fire on classrooms, and they know students routinely die.
And they know all we're doing about it is teaching them where to hide.
That fills me with more shame and sorrow than I know what to do with.



The world has gone mad and yet,
Life Goes On
But today, I, like Heidi Stevens, like the President, like so many of you here today, cannot go on, life as usual.
I can’t preach the sermon I’d written. We’re killing each other. And we all have blood on our hands. It must stop.
Two of our readings today speak to this issue pretty clearly. In Genesis, God saw that God’s newly created human was lonely and that it was not right that the Human One should be alone. And so, God created a companion, a partner, a helper, a friend. God made a community for the Human One. And God saw the community God had created and God exclaimed that it was Very Good.
We were created to be in community. We are to love one another, cherish one another and protect one another. God made us to be together.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims that those whom God has put together? We—humans-- must not pull apart.
My friends, God has put us together-- to love, to learn, to worship, to work, to relax. God has not put us together for us to take apart.
The children at Sandy Hook elementary school were together to learn and to grow with their classmates, their teachers and the school staff.
Until someone decided to pull them apart.
The people going to the movies in Aurora Colorado were together to be entertained, to relax and to enjoy.
Until someone decided to pull them apart.
The members of Mother Emmanuel AME church were together to study and pray on God’s Word.
Until someone decided to pull them apart.
The students, the faculty and the staff of Umpqua Community College were together to learn and to teach and to be a community.
Until someone decided to pull them apart.
God wants us together.
This latest maniac who decided he would judge the worth of someone’s life based on the religion they professed, dared to pull us apart.
We are outraged.
We are heartbroken and we are fed up.
Where has the perfection of God’s creation gone?
 My friends, we can’t just learn where to hide, we must remember how to live—in love, in peace and in community.
The perfection of this world, as God created it, isn’t lost forever.
We can return to the perfection of this, God’s world, if we have the courage of Chris Mintz who ran toward this latest murderer, risking his own life, to save others.
We can return to the perfection of this, God’s world, if we have the faith of the Sandy Hook parents who won’t let the evil they endured as they tirelessly battle the gun lobby in this country.
We can return to the perfection of this, God’s world,if we have the forgiveness in our hearts that the families of the Mother Emmanuel AME church murder victims exhibited for all the world to see.
Do not rest. Do not waver. Do not forget: it is not good for the human ones to be alone. We need each other. When one decides to tear us apart, many will stand up and say NO.
For the perfection of God’s creation is not lost, it’s simply misplaced and it’s our job, our sacred duty, to not stop until the light, life and love of that perfection is, once again, found.
Let us pray:
Gracious God, pour out your blessing upon all people devastated by the shootings in Roseburg, Oregon. We commend to your loving care the souls of those who lost their lives, and those wounded and traumatized. We hold in our hearts the families and friends now forever changed by grief and loss: bring them, we pray, the strength, consolation, courage and comfort to face the days ahead.
Finally, O God, help us respond with generosity in prayer, assistance, and comfort for all who suffer. And may all people of good will strive to find wise and effective ways to grapple with the increasing number and frequency of mass shootings in our country. For this the world that you brought together, let no one break apart.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Adapted from a prayer written by The Rev. Charlie Brumbaugh, Christ Church, Cincinnati)