Epiphany 4 Yr C Jan 31 2016 The Love that Begins All Love St Luke’s Attica/Christ Church Albion

+Couple’s preparing for marriage almost always choose today’s Epistle reading for their wedding. Invariably, they choose it because they think it so clearly expresses the love they have for each other, the love which, in their mind, will be the sole focus  of the wedding ceremony they’re planning. “Oh,” they exclaim, it’s PERFECT.” But then the cranky old priest informs them that this reading isn’t about their love for one another. That it doesn’t have anything to do with them directly, that St Paul didn’t think much of marriage anyway, so their love was not even on his radar as he penned these words to his flock in Corinth.
And therein lies a big problem. This reading has been given the full Hallmark make-over—and in the process it has been relegated to the “wedding reading,” so ubiquitous, that we fail to notice the profound and earth shattering message Paul was providing. You see what Paul is saying, in short, is that without God, nothing matters. Nothing.
 That promotion you just got at work? Without God? Big deal.
That wonderful partner you just promised to love and to cherish until you are parted by death? Without God? Nothing.
The healing you’ve received from that horrible illness? Without God in the picture?  Forget about it.
Paul is telling us that all those gifts we’ve been given, all the gifts of the spirit he’s been blathering about in the previous chapter are completely and utterly worthless—they mean absolutely NOTHING if they aren’t wrapped in, infused with, and born out of Love.
Not the love of mother to child, not the love of husband to wife, not the love of partner to partner, not the love of friend to friend, but the Love from which all these loves emanate. The Love from which all of Creation pours: God.
In his very Paul way (rambling harsh and at times convoluted) Paul is telling us that GOD IS LOVE.
God is THE LOVE that puts the warmth in the sun, the sparkle in your beloved’s eye, the giggle in a  child, the blue in the sky and the hope of the world. And without it, without this Love above all other loves? Well without it our gifts, no matter how vast, no matter how amazing, no matter how cherished, end up like so many discarded toys a few days after Christmas: a bunch of twisted plastic, crumpled tissue paper, broken boxes and torn ribbons, forgotten and tossed aside.
A couple of years ago I began my Christmas Eve sermon by remembering this exchange I had with my niece Alyssa when she was a little girl:
“What’s this?” “A present for you.” “For me?” “Yes, it’s for you.” “Why?” “ Because I love you very much.”
It was either Christmas or her birthday and I was giving Alyssa a gift. Presents were kind of new to her, and she didn’t quite get that this was just for her… to keep. Forever! She was delighted beyond belief with the gift. But it wasn’t the doll or the book or the toy, it wasn’t even the thrill of receiving a gift from another. No for that little girl it was (and I might say, still is for the almost 25 year old woman she has become) the love which led me to want to give her something. That’s what gave her such a thrill. Out of her appreciation of that love, out of her love for me came her unbridled innocent response of joy: “For me? Especially for me?”
You see, little Alyssa got it right all those years ago: the REAL gift isn’t the toy or the book, or the ability to prophesy, or to heal or to preach or to do altar guild, or host coffee hour or serve on vestry—the REAL gift, the ONLY gift is Love.
We can be the greatest at what we do—the best lawyer, the best writer, the best teacher, the best nurse, the best volunteer, the best mother, the best father, the best friend, the best partner, the best the best the best—but if we do these things for our own glory and not for God’s, if we do these things for our own gain solely and not for the good of the whole, if we do these things in a vacuum oblivious to our responsibility to the world around us, then these gifts, these skills, these talents are just a noisy clanging bell signifying absolutely nothing.
The astonishing thing about this reading, the thing lost on so many of us who have heard the reading ad nauseum at weddings is this:
The Love of which Paul speaks “bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things.”
It. Never. Ends. Everything else—everything else—will end. All our gifts—no matter how fabulous-- all that we are and all that we have will end. It will all decay and crumble. It will all be forgotten and lost. But, not love. Not this Love that is God. Not this Love that fueled the dawn of creation. Not this Love that welled up and came to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ.
This Love, the Love beyond all understanding, the Love beyond full comprehension, the Love we can only see through a glass dimly until the Last day—this is the Love that knits us, inextricably and forever, to God. AND, it is the Love that, inextricably and forever, knits us to one other. For it is in us and through us that the Love to end all Loves, the Love that is God takes shape as the Body of Christ in this world.
So unwrap your gifts, exclaim your joy and know that this Greatest Gift of All, the Love that is God, will never end, it will never wear out and it will never ever fail us. Thanks be to God! +

***originally preached at Good Shepherd and Ascension Epiphany 4, 2013***

We are One Diocese, One Body, One Faith Epiphany 3 January 24, 2016 St Luke’s Attica and Christ Church Albion

+It’s great to be with you this morning. I am the Canon for Connections in the diocese, it’s a new position established by our Bishop to further his vision of the web of grace by having someone, in addition to him, go out into the diocese to facilitate the connections between the parish and the diocese, the parish and other parishes, and people to people. As we began last year with the Be Not Afraid and the Take Heart Conversations, where over 400 people from all areas of this diocese gathered to talk about what it means to be the church today and what it take to still be the church tomorrow, the Bishop’s goal is to have our parishes connect on a variety of levels and through a variety of means. Being here today is one part of this web-spinning!
I took this job after 6 years as the Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the priest at the Church of the Ascension…so besides having a new job, our family had to move out of Good Shepherd’s rectory in Buffalo to our house in the town of Lockport. I went from being The Rector, a fairly well-defined role to being this Canon for Connections, a new and not very well-defined or well-known job. I went from living in the City of Buffalo, where I have lived since moving to WNY 15 years ago to living in the country, in the hamlet of Wright’s Corners, in the town of Lockport.
Lots of changes for our family and those who know us. But these changes didn’t happen over night. We thought long and hard about them, and then we were intentional about saying good bye to the old and hello to the new.
The Jesus we meet in this morning’s gospel has also gone through a lot of changes but I think, for us, it’s easy to think that his changes came in one fell swoop—after all he is the Savior of the world----but they didn’t. It may be difficult for us to think of him needing to learn, to study and to prepare. But he did!
In this morning’s Gospel Jesus has just been baptized (the gospel we heard two weeks ago) and the Holy Spirit, which has just descended on him leads him into the wilderness for forty days and nights of challenge, temptation, fear and loneliness. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit Jesus endures it all. We catch up with him right after those 40 days during which he has prepared to take on his mantel as a teacher and preacher. He leaves and the wilderness and heads to Galilee where, we’re told, his renown grows. Jesus, to use modern phraseology has “found his voice” and begins to use it.
I suppose he could have begun his teaching and preaching right after his baptism, but he didn’t. He went on a pretty brutal retreat, where he prepared himself for all that was to come.
Remember last week when Jesus got a little snippy with his mother—telling her, when she asked him to help with the wine at the wedding in Cana , “woman, it’s not my time?” On some level he knew that he wasn’t ready for prime time yet , so while he performed the miracle he didn’t make a big deal about it, because he knew he wasn’t ready. He knew he had some more work to do before the Holy Spirit could use him to his fullest.
You know, the Holy Spirit isn’t picky. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just rely on the Savior of the world to come and do the work of God. The Holy Spirit, as Paul has been telling us these last two weeks, chooses us—each and everyone of us-- to do God’s work in the world. We—you and me, all of us--- are called   to be prepared, to be ready, to be open to the Spirit so that when we hear that call, when we feel that nudge, when we are thrust out of our own wildernesses and into a hurting world that so desperately needs the light of Christ, we can respond.
So, how do we do this? How do we prepare for the work the Spirit gives us to do?
By taking seriously our baptismal promise to “continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” We are to participate, as fully as we are able, in the life of the church. We’re to gather in fellowship, to study together, to pray together, to work together.

Paul tells us: “[that] in the one Spirit we [are] all baptized into [the] one body…indeed the body does not consist of one member but of many.” And every body, every community, every church, every diocese needs every member...because there are a variety of gifts, a variety of ways God can be worshipped, Christ can be proclaimed and Love for everyone everywhere, no exceptions, can be expressed.
My wish for all of us is this…that we never forget that the call of the One Spirit is to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter and that we always remember that there is only  One Body and we, each and everyone of us, are vital parts of it, a body that answers always and forever and only to the  One Spirit, the One God and the One Savior.
Amen!

It Takes All Kinds to Make the Kingdom Shine St Martins in the Fields, Grand Island Epiphany 2, 17 January 2016

+I’m so pleased to be with you this morning and I thank Fr. Earle for his hospitality. [Who knew what a party place, St Martin’s was!!! I really know how to pick my visits! ]
Today’s Gospel is one I think most of us can relate to---a wedding and the reception that follows—is a big deal.
When we got married three years ago this month, the plan was to keep the whole thing simple and to be married as part of the regular Sunday liturgy. Well, even with that goal uppermost in our minds, the whole event was complicated and we needed a lot of help to pull it off. We had the liturgy, incense, a big procession and lots and lots of music. The Bishop presided and preached, we had a close friend who is a priest assisting the Bishop, we had two deacons, a sub-deacon and a partridge in a pear tree!
All those moving parts needed coordination and required collaboration. It was complicated! And then there was the reception, held in the parish hall at the Church of the Ascension--- that small but mighty parish went into overdrive, repainting the hall, pulling up old and outdated carpet---sprucing the place up as best they could. Friends of ours arranged for the caterer, other friends arranged for people to bring additional food, my mother bought the champagne and the rest of my family helped shovel and de-ice the sidewalks leading into the church.
 There were surprises, too, just like at the Wedding in Cana—no we didn’t run out of wine-- but unexpected things still came up.
 A wedding requires a lot of collaboration and a wide range of talents---from those who can cook to those who can play music, plan liturgies, arrange flowers, serve the altar, usher, set up, clean up. It takes a team of folks who are good at a variety of things to pull off an event that has a lot of moving parts.
Kind of like a church. Or a diocese.
Think about how many people it takes to get St Martin’s ready for a Sunday morning. Altar Guild, choir, grounds keeping, cleaning the church, readers, chalice bearers, healing team, a sermon, [the gospel being acted out, a big party]…..lots of moving parts go into a smooth Sunday morning worship service that feeds people, strengthening them for the week ahead. Then there are the broader parts of being a parish church---you have to pay your bills so you need to do fundraisers, you need to have a stewardship team, you need vestry members, wardens and other committee chairs. You need Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders etc etc etc.
A church has a lot of moving parts. And if you multiply all those roles I just enumerated by 58 (the number of parishes we have in the diocese) that’s a whole lot of people, a whole lot of tasks requiring a whole lot of different “skill sets.”
It’s what Paul’s describing in his letter to the church in Corinth. The Spirit provides us with a variety of gifts. Which is good, because there’s a lot to do to spread the light of Christ to all whom we encounter!
A few of us are really good at some things. Others of us are really good at other things. But all of us---all of us--- possess gifts of the spirit.
Yes, even you. And you and you and you and me. All of us.
Imagine with me what our churches would look like if everyone—each and every one of us---exercised our specific gifts to, as our collect says today, shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory so that he may be known worshipped and obeyed to the ends of the earth. If we, each and every one of us, used our gifts, those “unique made especially for us by God gifts” to help illuminate the love and light of Jesus Christ; we would change this wonderful parish forever. If we, each and every one of us, used our gifts, those unique made especially for us by God gifts to help illuminate the love and light of Jesus Christ; we would change this diocese forever.
If we, each and every one of us, used our gifts, those unique made especially for us by God gifts to help illuminate the love and light of Jesus Christ, we would change this town, this region, this country, this world, forever.
Don’t think you have a gift? Don’t think you’re talented enough? Do you feel a pull to get more involved but don’t know how?
Well do I have good news for you---my job, this brand new position created by the Bishop, the Canon for Connections, my job is to help each and every parish in this diocese connect with all the other parishes. My job is also to help people and whole parishes who may want to begin to try something altogether new but don’t know how to begin or where to look for help, find other people who know how to do just what it is you’re trying to begin.
My job’s also to tell you how many things you can do, at the diocesan level that will help you discern your gifts and the gifts of those around you. My job is to help all of us use our gifts to help bring the kingdom of God to reign here on earth.
Perhaps my title should be, instead of  Canon for Connections, the Canon for Gifts, the Canon for Collaboration or the Canon for helping everyone in this diocese see that it does, indeed take “all kinds” to shine with the full light of Christ.
So my charge to you, the folks of this storied parish is this---pay attention to the nudging of the Spirit, those times when you think, “what if we tried this…”or those times when you feel a pull to read the bible more fully, or respond to a need in the community of Grand Island, or get involved on the diocesan level ….pay attention to those nudges, listen to that voice, because what we learn from our readings this morning is this----“there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” Even you and me.   Amen.

Christmas 2 Yr C 2015: Growing Up is Hard to Do St John’s Wilson, St, Andrew’s, Burt January 3 2016

+To paraphrase that old Neil Sedaka song of the 1960’s: Growing Up is Hard to Do.
The scene in this morning’s Gospel rings true for anyone who has seen a child move through the pains of the teen years. Can’t you just hear Joseph and Mary?
“What’s gotten into him?” “What happened to our sweet boy?” “It’s like he’s a different person!”
Mary and Joseph are, like many parents of adolescents, exasperated when they finally locate Jesus in the temple—They’re frustrated, scared and bewildered!
Frustrated that he didn’t stay with his traveling group, not thinking how his actions affected others,
 scared that they couldn’t find him and had been searching for three days and
bewildered by his strange response to them, when they finally locate him: “"Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" No doubt, Mary and Joseph were beside themselves—with fear and annoyance!
More so than any other time of the year, the humanity of Jesus takes center stage during the 12 days of Christmas. We marvel at the site of the precious baby lying in a manger and then today, as we wind down this brief Christmas season, we’re offered a glimpse of the early adolescent Jesus. A Jesus on the cusp of all that adolescence brings—the good, the bad and the ugly….
I don’t know about you, but I’m fascinated by the human side of Jesus---especially the growing up Jesus--- what did he think? How did he feel?
In Anne Rice’s fictional book Out of Egypt she provides her interpretation of Jesus’ childhood. She describes Jesus as “childlike but also divine, wise beyond years, yet wondering who he is and why he’s different from other boys.”
I bet this is accurate—wondering why one is different from others is a common refrain for many teens---they just don’t feel like they fit in. And that’s tough at any age. We all try to fit in and when we don’t we employ any number of coping techniques to deal with it. Some of us just try to blend in-- taking on the clothing, tastes and opinions of the majority---others of us become so outlandishly different, so intentionally separate that we ostracize others and become even more alone than before.
A burgeoning adolescent can go to both extremes. Often in the same week! It’s easy for us on the outside to think that this behavior is intentional ---that it’s designed to drive us—the adults ----insane. And, to an extent this may be true-- getting a rise out of our elders is a pastime we’ve all engaged in--but most child development experts agree that these behaviors are often as mysterious to the adolescent as they are infuriating to the adults around them. I think it fair to assume that the boy Jesus, in his fully incarnate nature, experienced a lot of these same feelings of confusion, distraction, rebellion and mystery. He was trying to figure out who the heck he was! He knew he was different and this just wasn’t a case of appearance, skill at boyhood games or economic/class standing of his family. He knew something was REALLY different about him, but so far no one had told him much.
Remember, throughout our Advent and Christmas readings we’re told that with each passing oddity—the angelic visits, the shepherds following some wild star and the strange visitors from the east, Mary pondered these things in her heart. She didn’t talk about it, as far as we know, she didn’t cry out, “what in the world is going on?!?!” Nope, Mary pondered and waited for more to be revealed. So until she was told that it was time for Jesus to know the truth of who he was, Mary was keeping quiet. But while she and Joseph ponder just who this son of their’s is, Jesus begins to explore his own heart’s desire, his own identity search.
And on this day, his heart led him to the Temple ….to His Father’s house.
 Now this wasn’t some adolescent dig against Joseph, the father who raised him, this was Jesus responding to his developing sense of self which is leading him away from his earthly family and toward his spiritual one. Because, while Mary and Joseph were raising Jesus, he was and is, ultimately, God’s Son.
Jesus had to follow the draw of his identity—that of being the Son of God, because if he hadn’t claimed his rightful spot as God’s Son then we could never claim our spot as heirs to Him and as inheritors of the Kingdom of God. So yes, Jesus had to be at his Father’s house and yes that scared the dickens out of Mary and Joseph. Like any parent the safety of their child was uppermost in their hearts and minds and they would not rest until they found him safe and sound… likewise, Jesus would not…could not… rest until he found his own place of safety and security---his home, God’s house, the Temple.
On this day, this day when Jesus is drawn to the Temple, Mary and Joseph have a truth tangibly presented to them—a lesson every parent learns—that the day comes when they must let their child go. And this day had come—they needed to let Jesus go so he could grow into his full identity.
What today’s Gospel is teaching us, what the full breadth and depth of our Christmas stories tell us is this: growing into the full stature of who we’ve been created to be, whether we’re regular folk like you and me; special people set aside to do God’s amazing work, like Mary and Joseph; or the Savior of the World, like Jesus Christ, growing up, growing into who God created us to be, isn’t always easy, smooth or simple.
But, by letting him grow, by letting their Son develop his own identity, Joseph and Mary give us a wonderful Christmas gift--- a Savior who, because he lived into the fullness of his being, will now lead us into the fullness of our being, as dedicated, courageous and loving servants of God, wherever that takes us.
Amen.