+Today’s Gospel depicts a pinnacle moment in the life of Jesus. Today his formal ministry begins in a big audacious way. He walks into the synagogue of his youth, reads a famous excerpt from the Book of Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah and claims that the reading has been fulfilled in their sight. He’s it. Like I said, it’s an audacious, pinnacle moment in the life of Jesus.
And I’m not really going to preach on it….
I’m not going to preach on it because what spoke to me this week is not this Gospel reading, but our reading from Corinthians.
I invite you to journey with me past the life of Christ and into the life of the early church, to a time when these followers of Jesus were trying to figure out how to live the way Jesus taught them, how to spread the good news of Christ to the world, how to make disciples, how to change hearts, change minds, change lives in a new and never before tried way.
Paul and his followers had no guidebook beyond the teachings of Jesus, no blueprint, no roadmap.
Their job was to make disciples of the nations. Their job was to spread the astonishing outlandish, amazing good news of Jesus to all.
And you know what? They had no earthly idea how to do it.
But by being open to the nudgings and nigglings of the Holy Spirit, they found their way.
Together, they found their way.
And this is what speaks so profoundly to me this week.
Together…
By Listening to the Holy Spirit…
They found their way.
I can’t stand here today without thinking about all that we’ve been through, individually and collectively these past few years. We’ve experienced huge loss, we’ve cultivated fresh starts, we’ve worried and wondered, despaired and dreamed, cried and laughed together. I am profoundly grateful to you for walking with me through the many losses I’ve experienced and I am profoundly honored to have walked with you through some of yours.
Together we have gotten through these changes. And together we will go through the changes that are yet to come.
Because it is only by sticking together that we can truly be the Body of Christ.
In St Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, a church which, by the way, was a mess, Paul is saying—stick together people because the Body of Christ is not something we attach ourselves to, it is something we create, one connection, one relationship, at a time. We are all part of a greater whole.
Paul writes: “in the one Spirit we’re all baptized into [the] one body…indeed the body does not consist of one member but of many.” And everybody, 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.
You, the people of Trinity Hamburg have stayed connected through some very difficult times. Some of you left and came back, others of you have stayed throughout it all, still others of you showed up for the first time in the middle of it.
And here you are. Stronger for the journey, more resilient than you probably ever imagined you could be, more faith-filled than you probably even know that you are.
Which is good, because the journey, my friends, is just beginning.
It’s an exciting time in this parish church, in the two dioceses of WNY and NWPA and in the wider Episcopal Church. We are embarking on a journey not unlike the Church in Corinth. We are doing something very new. We don’t know where it will lead us, we don’t how we will get there and we aren’t even sure it is going to work, but what we do know is that we can only succeed if we do this together. For together, with God, we can do infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine.
And in so many ways, looking at our angry, hurting and increasingly lost world of today, this new, bold and audacious way of spreading the Good News of Christ has come in the nick of time…for somehow, someway we need get this world back on track.
So maybe I am preaching the gospel this morning!! For when Jesus preached at his home synagogue he was taking the old—the prophet Isaiah---and presenting it in a new way, a fresh way, a different way. I’d like to tell you that everyone was thrilled with this new way and embraced him fully. But that’s not what happened. The people of Nazareth—including his family—lost their minds and drove him out of town, with every intention of killing him.
This journey that we are on-- the one specific to Trinity Hamburg and the Dioceses of WNY and NWPA -and the more general one of spreading the Good News of Christ to all whom we encounter is not going to be smooth nor will it always be easy. BUT if we remember to stick together, if we remember that all of us are needed, it will never ever be lonely! And for that we can be grateful.
So as we move into this season of change, this season of growth, this season of journeying wherever the Holy Spirit leads, my wish for us is this…that we never forget that while there’s only One Body, we, each and every one of us, are vital, precious, beloved members of it. Together we have grown and will grow, together we have learned and will learn and together we have changed and will continue to change.
Just like Jesus did. Just like Paul did. Just like the Church in Corinth did.
May God continue to bless Trinity Church, Hamburg and may God’s Holy Spirit continue to push the Dioceses of WNY and NWPA forward in an audacious and bold new way of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Messiah who is here to stay.
Amen.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
The Time Is Now--Get Busy Epiphany 2C St Mark's Erie
+I wonder if Jesus’ mother, Mary, was related to my mother. When Mary comes to Jesus saying, “they’re running out of wine---you must do something!” I’m reminded of the many parties my parents hosted when I was young...the biggest worry leading up to those parties was whether or not there was enough food and drink! Now, whenever I have folks over, I’m stressed that there won’t be enough.
This is a fear of scarcity…but that’s not what was going on with Mary. You see, Mary’s always the smartest one in the room, the most intuitive, so when she says to Jesus—“you’ve got to do something, we’re running out of wine,” she wasn’t acting out of fear or face-saving, she just knew that it was time, time for her son to live into his ministry. Time for her son to take the old and turn it into the altogether new.
Jesus doesn’t think it’s his time, but Mary doesn’t really care what he thinks, she knows it’s time and he must act. So he does.
Jesus’ ministry has begun.
But, because this is John’s Gospel, it isn’t as clear as I’m making it sound. This Gospel is full of symbolism. Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke; John makes no pretense that his Gospel is a straight-forward, historical narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus.
When reading John we must always remember that what’s presented is only part of the story, because with John there’s always more symbolism than our brains can take on the first read through. It’s a little bit like reading William Faulkner or Toni Morrison. Or watching that old TV show, Lost.
A prevailing theme for John is the dawning of a new age. To John, the coming of Jesus as Messiah has changed the world from what it used to be into something altogether new.
This is why John prefers to use the word “signs” instead of “miracles.” The things Jesus did, like turning water into wine, were signs to the faithful that the way we experience God and the way God experiences us is now changed.
What Jesus did was not about an obedient son reluctantly doing what his mother asked; nor was it about Jesus making sure the host of the wedding was not embarrassed by the wine running out, nor was it about making sure those attending the party were able to keep drinking.
What’s really significant in this story is that the water is special water. It’s water that’s been set aside for the Jewish purification rites. It’s there for the people to use for washing. But it wasn’t about being sanitary or comfortable. This washing was a religious ceremony; a ritual cleansing in order to go before the Lord during the wedding feast. In this sign Jesus takes the old- the ritual bath water- and turns it into the new- fresh wine.
Now, it’s important to realize that this isn’t an anti-Semitic reading---Jesus didn’t take “the bad or the wrong” and turn it into the “good and the right!” He didn’t take the useless and turn it into the useful. He took good things from the past and transformed them into other good things for the future.
In this season of beginnings—a new calendar year, the advent of the covenant relationship with the Diocese of WNY-- it’s fitting to ask ourselves: where have we been and where are we going? Or to expand the metaphor of this gospel: What’s our water that Jesus has come to turn into wine? What are the good things from our past that can be changed into good things for our future?
You at St Mark’s have been through your own intentional transformation since 2010, and from that initial rebooting of St Mark’s your community continues to look and consider, to reflect and wonder, to try and sometimes succeed, sometimes not, but always learning more and more about the power of the Holy Spirit as you go along.
While invigorating this can also be tiresome. Sometimes wouldn’t you love to say,
“ok, we’ve explored enough, we’ve tested this and tried that, now we have found the secret and we can sit back, rest on our laurels and stop working so hard. After all, what’s so bad about the old wine---isn’t it true that the older the wine, the better?”
Perhaps. But what John’s teaching us through the Wedding at Cana story is that the second we rely on the what has been, the moment we decide to stop looking at our world through the lens of Christ, searching for the nooks and crannies of our world where the lost and the lonely and the hurting have been cast aside, is the moment that our faith becomes something for the history books instead of something for the evening news.
The new age brought by Jesus the Christ is an ongoing age of transformation and growth and it is on full display right here at St Mark’s, in the Diocese of NWPA and in the Diocese of WNY. We are taking the old wine-skins of business as usual and allowing ourselves to be transformed into something new.
We’re not the people we once were; nor are we the people we will someday become.
We’re in a state of fluidity; we’re water being changed into wine.
We have choices, as individuals and as communities of faith. We can face the future's changes with fear of scarcity and resistance to change; or, we can embrace them with abundant faith and overflowing excitement.
You, the faithful of St Mark’s will be leaders of this charge into the unknown. Through your faithfulness, your courage and your willingness we can all learn what Mary already knew on that wedding day 2000 years ago: the time is now. Get busy.
Amen.
This is a fear of scarcity…but that’s not what was going on with Mary. You see, Mary’s always the smartest one in the room, the most intuitive, so when she says to Jesus—“you’ve got to do something, we’re running out of wine,” she wasn’t acting out of fear or face-saving, she just knew that it was time, time for her son to live into his ministry. Time for her son to take the old and turn it into the altogether new.
Jesus doesn’t think it’s his time, but Mary doesn’t really care what he thinks, she knows it’s time and he must act. So he does.
Jesus’ ministry has begun.
But, because this is John’s Gospel, it isn’t as clear as I’m making it sound. This Gospel is full of symbolism. Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke; John makes no pretense that his Gospel is a straight-forward, historical narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus.
When reading John we must always remember that what’s presented is only part of the story, because with John there’s always more symbolism than our brains can take on the first read through. It’s a little bit like reading William Faulkner or Toni Morrison. Or watching that old TV show, Lost.
A prevailing theme for John is the dawning of a new age. To John, the coming of Jesus as Messiah has changed the world from what it used to be into something altogether new.
This is why John prefers to use the word “signs” instead of “miracles.” The things Jesus did, like turning water into wine, were signs to the faithful that the way we experience God and the way God experiences us is now changed.
What Jesus did was not about an obedient son reluctantly doing what his mother asked; nor was it about Jesus making sure the host of the wedding was not embarrassed by the wine running out, nor was it about making sure those attending the party were able to keep drinking.
What’s really significant in this story is that the water is special water. It’s water that’s been set aside for the Jewish purification rites. It’s there for the people to use for washing. But it wasn’t about being sanitary or comfortable. This washing was a religious ceremony; a ritual cleansing in order to go before the Lord during the wedding feast. In this sign Jesus takes the old- the ritual bath water- and turns it into the new- fresh wine.
Now, it’s important to realize that this isn’t an anti-Semitic reading---Jesus didn’t take “the bad or the wrong” and turn it into the “good and the right!” He didn’t take the useless and turn it into the useful. He took good things from the past and transformed them into other good things for the future.
In this season of beginnings—a new calendar year, the advent of the covenant relationship with the Diocese of WNY-- it’s fitting to ask ourselves: where have we been and where are we going? Or to expand the metaphor of this gospel: What’s our water that Jesus has come to turn into wine? What are the good things from our past that can be changed into good things for our future?
You at St Mark’s have been through your own intentional transformation since 2010, and from that initial rebooting of St Mark’s your community continues to look and consider, to reflect and wonder, to try and sometimes succeed, sometimes not, but always learning more and more about the power of the Holy Spirit as you go along.
While invigorating this can also be tiresome. Sometimes wouldn’t you love to say,
“ok, we’ve explored enough, we’ve tested this and tried that, now we have found the secret and we can sit back, rest on our laurels and stop working so hard. After all, what’s so bad about the old wine---isn’t it true that the older the wine, the better?”
Perhaps. But what John’s teaching us through the Wedding at Cana story is that the second we rely on the what has been, the moment we decide to stop looking at our world through the lens of Christ, searching for the nooks and crannies of our world where the lost and the lonely and the hurting have been cast aside, is the moment that our faith becomes something for the history books instead of something for the evening news.
The new age brought by Jesus the Christ is an ongoing age of transformation and growth and it is on full display right here at St Mark’s, in the Diocese of NWPA and in the Diocese of WNY. We are taking the old wine-skins of business as usual and allowing ourselves to be transformed into something new.
We’re not the people we once were; nor are we the people we will someday become.
We’re in a state of fluidity; we’re water being changed into wine.
We have choices, as individuals and as communities of faith. We can face the future's changes with fear of scarcity and resistance to change; or, we can embrace them with abundant faith and overflowing excitement.
You, the faithful of St Mark’s will be leaders of this charge into the unknown. Through your faithfulness, your courage and your willingness we can all learn what Mary already knew on that wedding day 2000 years ago: the time is now. Get busy.
Amen.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Baptism of the Lord January 13, 2019 St Matthias The Sacrament of Baptism: Promises too strong to be broken, too deep to run aground, too light to be darkened, too profound to deny.
Who doesn’t love a baptism? * Who doesn’t love welcoming six people into the household of God?!
Yes they’re dressed up and no doubt there will be a party and a cake and maybe even some presents---but there’s more to love than a party and some cake. For this action---having water poured over their heads in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; being sealed, marked as Christ’s own forever –this sacrament of Holy Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward grace. Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. For this outward and visible action is the manifestation of our Creator’s awesome, epic, outlandish, never ending, always with us Love.
And that, my friends, is a reason to celebrate. For from before the moment each of US were formed in the womb we were known, loved and adored by our God. And we still are. This is the wonder of baptism---publicly and boldly proclaiming that we know God “has our backs” that from before we even knew what was happening, we were and we are enveloped in Love.
The prophet Isaiah writes:
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Because you are precious in my sight…and I love you,
I invite us to sit with these words for a moment.
I created you. I formed you. I redeemed you, I call you by name. You are mine, you are precious in my sight and I love you.
I pray Georgia, Lottie, CeCe ,Hazel, Ophelia and Mabel will never ever forget these words.
I pray they never ever forget that they were formed in love by God to be the fullness of who they are.
I pray they always know that when passing through the rough seas of life that their Lord, their God, will be there. That those waters, no matter how much they churn, no matter how high they rise, will never overtake them, for their Lord, their God, their Creator will be with them, come what may.
I pray they always know that no fire will consume them, no hardship defeat them, no heartache overwhelm them.
I pray that they always know that even when those waters do rise, even when the flames seem far too close, even when the hardship feelstoo hard, too powerful, too….much, even when the heartache cuts deeper than they thought they could bear, when the power of their grief threatens their very peace they will know, deep in their bones, settled wonderfully in their soul, that they are not alone. That they never have been and never will be.
And I hope all of us know this, too.
This is what baptism offers each and every one of us: promises too strong to be broken, too deep to run aground, too light to be darkened, too profound to deny.
In the promises of baptism we are assured of God’s Love, God’s Grace, God’s Hope and God’s Protection. Always. Forever. No exceptions.
Here is the truth of our lives:
There will be pain.
There will be heartache.
There will be grief.
There will be loss.
There will be disappointment
There will be worry.
But there will never be abandonment, there will never be solitude, there will never be anything from which we cannot recover.
For God so loved us----SO LOVED Us that God sent God’s only begotten Son---God’s first beloved of all---to live among us, to die for us and to walk with us through the wonder of the Holy Spirit, everymoment of our lives.
My friends, who doesn’t love a baptism….
for through a baptism…or six….weare reminded of God’s love for us.
We are reminded of God’s commitment to us and we are, I hope, reminded of God’s need, God’s desire, God’s longing for us to return the favor.
For a baptism is not just a bestowing of love, it is an exchange of love, an exchange of commitments. Baptism is when God promises to love us, and we promise to love God.
So, as we commemorate the Baptism of Christ, as we rejoice at the baptism of these 6 wonderful souls, let us never forget that we---each and every one of us—is precious, absolutely precious, in God’s sight.
Who doesn’t love a baptism for in a baptism God calls us God’s beloved and we call God ours.
Who doesn’t love that? Amen.
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