No time to waste... we have 525,600 moments....

Probably the best-known song from the Broadway musical Rent is Seasons of Love. The lyrics include: five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes—how do you measure, measure a year. 

In daylights, in sunsets

In midnights, in cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes how do you measure a year in the life?

Well I can tell you how you don’t—by looking back, by waiting for the right time—you know, waiting to get out of debt, for the kids to grow up, for the next promotion, for things to calm down. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. 

Jesus is telling his would be followers: the time is now…every single moment of life is important and vital and above all else, precious. So no, don’t bury your dead, don’t turn your head with your hand on the plow….don’t wait “until,” for until is not guaranteed. 

Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem….he’s laid the foundation and now all has been unleashed and the conclusion is no longer in question. Jesus had the ability to turn his face toward the end. 

My friends, we don’t know our end, we don’t know how many of those 525,600 minutes will be ours. 

What Jesus is saying we must know, we must remember is this: 

We have right now, this moment, this time, this day, this hour, this minute, to spread the singular message of Jesus, the core of all things sacred and holy and good:

Love. 

You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you shall respect the dignity of every single human being—the black human being, the brown, the white, the democrat, the republican, the straight, the gay, the transgender, the cisgender, those we like, those we don’t, those we agree with, those we don’t. 

Love. 

As Jesus turns to face his fate, as the darkness of this world descends upon him, one hateful comment, one violent act, one intolerant judgment at a time, Jesus knows that we only have so many moments and that every moment—-every single one—-needs to lead with, be infused by and end with a lingering taste of Love. Because it’s by loving—really loving——that creation  will reach its fullness. 

So exactly what does it mean to Love in this God way, this Jesus way, this faithful way? What is this Love we are to live into for every one  of the 525,600 minutes which make up a year, the 10, 080 which make up a week, the 1,440 which make up this very day? 

It’s the love Jesus speaks of in today’s reading from Luke—it’s the Love that doesn’t get caught up in “getting back” at those who don’t agree with us. It’s the Love that doesn’t get de-railed when things don’t go the way we want them too, or thought they would. 

James and John are incensed that the Samaritans weren’t rolling out the red carpet for Jesus . Now this was ridiculous—-who welcomes—-sincerely welcomes— a person who’s telling you that what you believe must be turned upside down and inside out in order for you to live a true and authentic, a Holy and Blessed—Life? 

Nobody, right? 

But there’s no one as zealous as those Sons of Thunder—James and John—so they’re ready to lay out the Samaritans for their refusal to welcome Jesus. What John and James don’t realize is that the lesson Jesus wants to teach in that village is not just —or even especially—for the Samaritans. No the lesson Jesus wants to teach, the message he’ll be teaching for the next ten chapters of Luke is that to be his disciple, to Follow Him, to be a Christian, requires more than walking alongside Him. It means picking up our own crosses and truly following him. 

Sounds daunting doesn’t it? 

And it is. We get all this stuff in the second part of the gospel about let the dead bury the dead, don’t turn your head around with your hand on the plow….about foxes and birds having a place to call home, but the Son of Man needs to keep moving because people can’t take it—-they can’t tolerate this love everyone message, it’s too difficult. 

Because folks being a Christian, following Jesus is, FROM THE OUTSIDE a seemingly difficult task. 

But from the inside? From the inside when we have taken Jesus fully and completely into our hearts and our minds and our souls, when we’ve realized that without God our existence signifies nothing but that with the love of God, the teachings and the example of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit infusing every single one of our 525,600 minutes, the task is no longer difficult, the journey is no longer long, the belief is no longer too demanding…for when we begin and end every single one of our moments on this earth with the Love that is God, when we let every single one of our moments on this earth be formed by, directed through and lived into the teachings of Jesus Christ, then our moments, these moments, will be filled to overflowing with peace, filled to overflowing with abundance and filled to overflowing with joy. 

How do we do that? By not dwelling in what was or in what you wish could be again, but rather in facing the future in the faith and the hope and above all else, the Love that is  our Lord, our Savior, and our hope, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Observation: I think Cindy is as scared shirtless as the rest of us, but her psyche can not tolerate admitting that. She is sooooooo defended. Hard to move through life that way, I hope today brought her closer to trust and faith.

No Time

to Waste:

Get up!! Pentecost 2C Proper 7 Calvary Williamsville

+Laura was finished. She had no more fight in her. The man who was determined to kill her, a deranged man who happened to be her husband, a violent, unpredictable man, had her by the hair and this was it, she was finished. She couldn’t fight anymore.Death would be a relief.

But, as is so often the case, God had other plans.

There was a hesitation in her husband’s rage, a fear almost—something caused him to pause and in that moment she heard an unfamiliar voice  say, “ let her go. Now.” Jim, a gentle giant of a man wrapped his mammoth arms around Laura and lifted her to safety. Laura says it was a Holy Spirit moment….Jim  agreed. “I don’t know what came over me-- It had to have been a higher power. I stepped in, but it wasn’t me, someone/something else took control.

Yes, God had other plans.

Elijah’s toast. He’s done. He dared to disagree with Jezebel and neither she nor the king were amused. Elijah’s running for his life. He knew there was nowhere to hide, he knew eventually the King’s guards would find him and that would be that. So, Elijah, exhausted and disgusted with himself collapses under the broom tree—begging death to overtake him.

But God had other plans.

A divine messenger awakens Elijah and says, “Get up! Eat something!”

Elijah opened his eyes and saw bread and water right by his head. He ate and drank, and then went back to sleep.

A second time the messenger awakens Elijah, saying, “Get up!”

“Eat something, you have a difficult road ahead of you.” Get up!

Elijah got up, ate and drank, and refreshed by that food, carried on.

Because God had other plans.

Several years ago I heard Katharine Jefferts Schori preach a wonderful sermon on the gospel story of  Jairus’ daughter. Remember the story? Jairus comes to Jesus, begging him to heal his daughter. Jesus dilly dailies and when he finally reaches the girl, everyone says she is dead. Jesus clears the room, takes the girl’s hand and says, “Talitha Cum” which means, Little Girl, Arise, but which Bishop Katharine translated as “Get Up, Girl!”

This girl was as good as dead, but God?

God had other plans.

Through messengers, prophets, apostles, the Holy and Undivided Trinity calls to us all the time, telling us to

“Get up girl, get up boy, get up man, get up woman, get up church, get up world, there’s work to do!”

And my friends WE’RE  just the people to do it.

God has plans for us:

Get up, man!

That’s what the Holy Spirit was saying to Jim as he rescued Laura.

Get up, woman!

That’s what God was saying to Laura who wanted to give in and give up so many times in her abusive marriage.

Get up, prophet!

That’s what the messenger was saying to Elijah, “your work is not yet done.”

And that is the message God gives us as we embark on the long green growing season known as ordinary time. We are no longer waiting for a birth in the manger,  no longer marching through the days of trial in Lent, no longer waiting for the tomb to be empty….no, we are now in the time known as ordinary—not because it’s boring, but because it’s a time for the steady drumbeat of doing the work we’ve been given to do—-picking up the mantle of God, inspired and enflamed by the Holy Spirit to continue the work Jesus did. The work he left for us, the work he gave to us. The work of getting up and being the light of love to the whole world. The work of saying no to injustice, the work of saying no to hate, the work of saying no to inequality. The work of saying yes— all are welcome, of saying yes to respecting the dignity of every single human being, of saying yes to the work of Love. 

My friends, the arc of justice may bend somewhat slowly, the road may seem long, the journey tough, but those impediments are no excuse for... God is saying loud and clear: “GET UP, I need you---yes YOU---to do this work and to do it now.”

So, as  we enter into the fullness of summer, as the days stay long and the nights are cooled by a soft summer breeze may we never ever forget that giving up may always be an option for us, but that God in God’s persistent, loving and yes at times annoying fashion will always pull us out of ourselves, shake us up and move us toward doing exactly what it is we need to do. 

Get up folks, the world needs us…right here and right now.
Amen. 

Putting Skin on God St Patrick's Cheektowaga Pentecost 2019

During a search for a quite from a previous sermon I came across this sermon that Pete wrote in 2013. I offered it today with a few edits for time and place.
Pentecost is frequently described as the “birthday of the church”, and while that’s a nice, comforting, pretty image to have, I think it’s a wrong and woefully misleading image.
Pentecost isn’t sweet, it isn’t safe, it isn’t warm and fuzzy and familial. No, Pentecost is dangerous.
The story begins with a group of believers, isolating themselves.  Afraid of outsiders, they’d stayed together.  If they’d known what was going to happen, they probably would have headed for the hills, each man for himself!!! Because what was about to happen would have freaked out even the bravest of us.  On that fateful day, the disciples ARE in danger… but not from who they suspect— the Sanhedrin—-but rather God, in God’s most wild form—-The Holy Spirit.
  God is crashing in, entering with a violent wind, and bringing, upon those  tongues of fire, an enlightenment that was all at once, thrilling and terrifying. The Holy Spirit shakes us to our core, causes us to do and say things we never thought we would...or could. She is the surprising, risk taking and wild part of the Godhead.
       Once upon a time there was a little boy who woke after a nightmare.   Convinced there were all kinds of monsters and goblins lurking under his bed and in the corners of his room, he ran to his parents’ bedroom. After his mother had calmed him down, and took the little boy back to bed she said, “You don’t need to be afraid, you aren’t alone here.  God is right here with you in your room.”  The little boy said, “I know that God is here, but what I need is someone in the room with skin on!”
 For 33 years Jesus was here on earth—-God in the flesh, God with skin on; healing, teaching, reconciling.  But now he’s gone, ascended into heaven.  The time when God was physically present, physically touchable, physically knowable is over.  And here we are, left behind, bereft.  And our consolation?  Our comforter?
Is a violent, mighty wind.  A wind that leaves tongues of fire on the apostles’ heads, a wind that causes a cacophony of languages to be spoken.  Where oh where is our God in the Flesh?  A God we can see and hear and touch and smell?  A God who is with us at work, in difficult meetings, and in scary illnesses and accidents? A God who’s with us when we’re lonely,  hungry, cold, rejected.  A God who’ll share our laughter when we’re happy, who’ll dry our tears when we’re sad; a God who’ll challenge us, poke us, prod us and most of all a God who makes us believe we are loved and lovable.
  What kind of God would be here for 33 years and then just take off on us, leaving nothing tangible behind? What kind of God would enter human history and then just disappear into the heavens? The kind of God who knows we can do it...a God who knows we can absorb the Holy Spirit into our very beings and then  be the hands and feet of the Divine in this world. The gift of Pentecost is knowing that we are now the skin of God on earth.... the heirs of Jesus’ teaching, the bearers of Jesus’ light, the instruments of his love.
       Folks,  there's a Pentecost happening everyday in the world.  All day long, every day of our lives, we have the chance and the choice to breathe in the wind and the flames of the Holy Spirit, becoming the skin,  bones, and heart of God. Right here. And right now.
God uses us as we are, our flaws,  our faults,  our passions and  our gifts.  All of it.
I mean, just look at the apostles:  one was impatient, one was cranky, one was uncertain, one was unfocused, one was self-centered, one was thoughtless, and on  and on. Pentecost isn't about being perfect, it isn't even about being good enough. It's about hearing what sounds foreign to us and making sense of it, about hearing what strangers have to say and understanding what they want and need. And by the way, when I say strangers I don't necessarily mean people we don't know, people we’ve never met.  We can be here week after week, at work week after week, and sadly enough, at home day after day and still not really know each other,  it can still seem as if we come from different countries and speak different languages.  The gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is that we can hear and understand what each other is saying. By the gift of the Holy Spirit we can be Christ to one another.
Through the Holy Spirit God takes on flesh again.  When we receive the Holy Spirit, when we accept the Holy Spirit, when we claim the Holy Spirit,  God awakens in us the gifts that God needs  so that God can continue to be  present in the world.
From Advent until now we've been watching and listening to Jesus.  He’s taught us how to bring God's kingdom here on earth.  He’s modeled for us how to be God with skin on for one another.  And now it's up to us.
We’re the church, we’re the body of Christ.
Today we celebrate. Tomorrow through the power of the Holy Spirit, we get busy being God with skin on for all the world.
Amen.
copyright The Rev. Deacon Lucinda "Pete" Dempesy-Sims, 2013 RIP

Praying Us into God's Dream Easter 7C Trinity, Fredonia

Today’s reading, just like last week’s, is from Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. It’s Maundy Thursday. Jesus is giving his last sermon. The end is near. He’s getting in as much as he can in the very limited time left.
And although the reading is taken from the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, the content is all about what’s to come---the resurrection, the ascension, the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the steady walk toward the coming of God’s reign in this world, on that day when, as Jesus says, we’ll all be one…
A day when as outlined in our reading from Revelation--a world where all those who desire the water of life will be washed in it, where everyone who thirsts for justice and righteousness will be quenched, a world which we must help create by following the teachings of Jesus and the dream of God. A world where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing but life everlasting. The New Jerusalem. When heaven and earth are joined as one.
As he looks ahead to the inevitability of his suffering and death. As he contemplates all that has been and all that will be, our Lord and Savior prays: intently, powerfully and emotionally. He prays for his friends. He prays they will carry his message throughout all the lands. He prays that they, his friends will pray for all whom they encounter and he promises to pray for everyone everywhere, always. I find this scene of Jesus praying humbling and amazing and moving:
 Jesus prays for me. And for you. For all of us. Forever.
Prayer is an awesome, powerful, mysterious and incredible thing.
Now I know a lot of people feel ill-equipped to pray. We feel as if our prayers need to have the eloquence of the great preachers of our day, the poetry of the BCP, just the right words to convey what it is God wants to here.
Nope.
Anne Lamott has stated that the three most powerful prayers in the world are:
Help
Thanks
Wow
Prayer can be a series of disjointed words. Prayer can be one word. Prayer can be sitting in silence, listening for what it is thew Spirit is whispering to us. Prayer can also be a sunset, a baby’s laugh or a herd of deer on a rainy Sunday morning along the 90.
This morning a herd of deer galloped along side of me as I sped down the 90. They didn’t turn into the road, they just ran alongside and while witnessing this I was overcome by a peace and a presence sop profound I was sure that my late wife and my late mother were in the car with me. It was if they were saying—we are here, in everything. Everywhere always. Those deer were a prayer for me.

Have you ever been in a period of profound pain and loss and fear? Have you ever had people intentionally and consistently pray for you during that time? Have you felt their prayers?
I have. And I’m here to tell you, it works. I’ve been sustained by and through the prayers of so many people… As a woman of faith I've certainly done my share of praying and  intellectually I’ve known that research shows the effectiveness of prayer. But it wasn’t until I was the recipient of extensive, intensive, pointed prayer that I understood---deep in my bones, my heart and my soul---the power of prayer. I was, and remain incredibly humbled by my prayer warriors and have seen again and again and again that same intentional intercessory prayer work absolute wonders for others. Prayer works. The prayer of others offers the recipient a spiritual undergirding that buoys them up enough to endure whatever it is they are enduring. Prayer brings peace to the hearts and souls of those who are prayed for. And that my friends is our secret weapon.
Because by praying we will change this world.
And changing the world is what Jesus is telling us to do. It what’s God is expecting us to do.
Prayer isn’t optional for any of us who long for that New Jerusalem described in Revelation or that world where we all—everyone everywhere—will be one as Jesus prayed for in the Gospel.
My charge to you, each and every one of you here today, is to pray.
Diligently, regularly. And not just for those you know but especially for those you don’t.
Pray for peace. Pray that the leaders of the nations will have wisdom. Pray for our planet, pray for seasonable weather and successful crops. Pray for those you love. And pray for those you have a REAL HARD TIME loving. Pray for your enemies. For through prayer a power of light, of positive energy, of Love is unleashed and spreads throughout the world. This power is real, it is effective and is the only way forward for us. Pray.
It’s also important to pray for this, your church, and for your priest, and your vestry and wardens.
Pray for those members who have left the area or are about ready to leave.
And please, please pray for our dioceses, pray for me, pray for Bishop Sean. Pray that all 90+  churches in our dioceses will live into the task that has been given to us:
To be the hands and feet, the eyes and ears of Christ in this world and to seek and serve Christ in all whom we meet.
On the night before he died, our Lord prayed for his friends, he prayed for the world and he prayed for us. Today as our focus moves from the empty tomb to being the church in the world, let us pray for him, let us pray with him and all those who have gone before. May we all pray….consistently, intentionally, and endlessly. And then let us watch the world evolve into the place of God’s dream.  Amen.