Going off script with God July 28, 2019 Proper 12

I remember, soon after I was ordained, my mother asking me to offer grace before a family dinner. I was in town because a very close family friend was seriously ill and none of us thought he would live through the night. So I commenced to offer a  standard food blessing, with a petition for Richard tacked onto the end. My mother, being a fairly rigid person, said "Amen," as soon as I ended the familiar "grace" portion of the prayer... She was used to a specific formula for saying grace and darn it how dare I mess with it! My mom was astounded that I would " go off script" while praying.

The disciples ask Jesus: teach us how to pray. John the Baptist did for his followers, do it for us, give us the formula, write us a script.

Everyone wants the inside track on the right way, the fool proof correct way to pray.

As if there is a wrong way to pray.

This is Jesus' point at the end of today's Gospel--- knock---Whatever you do knock! That is, PRAY, people. Whatever, however, wherever, whenever....God wants to engage us in a conversation. God wants to hear from us. God needs to hear from us!

And this is what personal prayer is: a conversation with God. Whenever we speak to God, God listens.

God may not respond as we expect ( or wish or sometimes demand ) but God does listen and God does communicate back to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

But what the disciples were asking, and what many people ask me is, just what’s the magic formula...the exact right way to pray?

I understand the question. People assume that God is like us. Like my mother--That God has a very distinct and proscribed way of doing things. That God is of the "my way or the highway" club.

God isn't.

However, because the disciples are an earnest bunch, Jesus offers them a formula for prayer. An outline of what a prayer could --NOT SHOULD-- look and sound like. The Lord's Prayer. Now it's  important to realize that although the prayer is known the world over- it's one of  the first prayers children learn, it's one most all of us have memorized -- it is not the be all and end all of prayers. It's simply an example, a prototype for a general kind of all encompassing prayer. It isn't magic, it's just handy.

We needn't pray as the Lord's Prayer is structured, nor must we pray like others pray. We must pray as we feel compelled to pray.

The only absolute is that we do, indeed, pray!

However that looks and however that sounds.

Author and Christian seeker Anne Lamott says that all prayer falls into three categories:

Thanks

Help

Wow.

THANKS

 thanks for giving me life

Thanks for giving me love.

Thanks for healing my hurts , my illness, my loss, my sadness

Thanks for getting me through that sticky wicket.

THANKS. Thanks thanks

HELP

Help me I'm lost

Help me I'm scared

Help me I'm hurt

Help me I'm over whelmed

Help me

Help them

Help us

WOW

wow what An amazing sunset

Wow what an incredible baby

Wow that's some kind of Love

Wow this is some kind of life

Wow. You amaze me God--you totally and completely amaze me.

WOW WOW WOW.

I tend to agree with Anne. This is all God needs.

The basics.

Thanks….Help…..Wow

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. Through my own journey with cancer, through my spouse’s cancer fight and death. 

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. 

After two year’s of Pete’s illness and death in 2017, followed several months later by my mom’s own decline and death... through a complete change of staff responsibilities that accompany a change in Bishops, through a major move.... people ask me all the time——how are you still standing? Perhaps I am strong, perhaps I am resilient, perhaps I am stubborn and perhaps all those characteristics have helped. 

But I know the primary reason, prayer. My own, sure. But the real power comes from the prayers of others. The intercessory prayer of people across this diocese, that’s what has and does sustain me.

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. Your prayers, my prayers, our prayers are powerful. Your prayers, my prayers, our prayers have a clear and definite effect in this world. And it is our responsibility, our duty, but above all else 

{i hope}our honor to offer prayers for others. Always.  

So, my charge to you is to pray.

Take the church directory and every single day, pray a page of that directory. The next day, the next page. Rinse and repeat!

Pray for those you know and for those you don’t.

Create a prayer chain, join the prayer chain and pray, as best you can. 

Go off script, blaze your own path and in your own words and through your own heart find a way to tell God thanks, to ask God for Help and to offer God Wow. 

Amen.

Hospitality isn’t the issue. Discipleship isn’t the issue. Attentiveness is.

+My parents were great entertainers. Together they had terrific parties, elegant dinners always opening our house to any number of social gatherings. Hospitality was and is very important in the Dempesy-Sims family.
But, there was a downside to all that entertaining. As the day of the party got closer, my mom became increasingly stressed—the house had to be spotless, the food perfect, the table settings, exquisite. Mom became anxious, irritable, and distracted. A lot like Martha in today’s gospel.
    This is a familiar story and one that causes strong reactions in people. Because of the way it’s been interpreted over the years, many women struggle with this Gospel. For some, their role behind the scenes at church, on Altar Guilds,  as members of the Daughters of the King  or ECW appears to be disregarded and belittled by Jesus. For others, this Gospel is irritating because it seems to pit two women against one another.
    Before setting ourselves firmly in one of those camps, I invite us to pause because this story is actually quite nuanced. With these four verses, Luke shows us that there are a number of ways to serve God, and that how we serve God doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that we do serve God--- at all times and in all places.
But still it does seem that Jesus is siding with Mary doesn’t it?
 That somehow Martha was insulting Jesus while Mary was honoring him.
    I don’t think Jesus meant to suggest that Mary’s way was the only way, nor was he suggesting that Martha’s way was the wrong way….I think Jesus was using that moment—when Martha’s anxiety had taken firm hold—as a teachable moment.
    This scene immediately follows what we heard last week—the parable of the Good Samaritan---a story in which Jesus implores his followers to be do-ers of the Word not just hear-ers. In that parable the inaction of the priest and the Levite—both bound by Jewish law to not go to the man’s aid— are criticized by Jesus, while the hospitality—the tangible action of the Samaritan— is honored. Last week, Jesus said, “Go and do like wise.” Go and be do-ers of the Word.
    But then this week Jesus appears to contradict himself, praising the seeming inaction of Mary who sits at his feet to receive his word, while condemning the action of Martha who’s offering the culturally expected  hospitality —Jesus praises the hearer of the word, while condemning the do-er. What’s up with that?
But neither Jesus nor Luke is being contradictory. Instead they’re using these two different stories to illuminate how a community of Christians need both do-ers and hear-ers. Both receivers and givers.
We, over the years, have applied our own bias to the story. Somehow we’ve decided that doing all the behind the scenes work—the altar guild, the ECW, the hospitality committees, the coffee hour, is somehow “Less Than.” Less than studying the Bible, learning about liturgy, debating the polity of the church. Somehow we’ve made the hearers of the Word more glamorous than the do ers of the word. What a mistake.
    Both Mary and Martha are acting as disciples in this story.
    Both Mary and Martha are loving and serving the Lord.
    Both Mary and Martha are loving their God with all their heart, all their soul and all their mind, and
    BOTH of them are loving their neighbor.
Mary and Martha are two halves of what is needed to make a household work: their household in Bethany and the household of God. They are two halves of what makes God’s Kingdom hum.
    There’s no problem with Mary hearing the Word and Martha doing the Word. BUT, there is a problem afflicting Martha, a problem familiar to my Mom, a problem familiar to many of us as we navigate our lives:
 anxiety, worry and distraction. Through Martha’s effort to love her neighbor as herself, she’s become anxious and distracted.
While focusing on her tasks, she’s lost sight of the goal.
The tasks of hospitality have gotten in the way of being hospitable. When the details of hospitality, the serving of food, the setting of the table [the liturgies, music and preaching] become more important than the welcome and love of neighbor, then we’ve all missed the mark.
In today’s Gospel Jesus was saying to Martha,” what you’ve done is enough, thank you. Now stop and let us be in fellowship.”
    Martha and Mary isn’t an “either or” proposition,  it’s a “Yes and” proposition.
 To Love and Serve the Lord requires giving AND receiving. To love and serve the Lord requires both speaking and listening. Both busyness and stillness.

Hospitality isn’t the issue.
Discipleship isn’t the issue.
Attentiveness is.
The Holy and Undivided Trinity: One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, asks one thing  of us: that we’re open enough, willing enough and aware enough to receive the Love of God in all that we do. And that we, in turn, give that Love to others. Everywhere and always.
My friends we are both——two halves of one glorious whole—-it takes many Marthas and many Marys to bring the dream of God to fruition here on earth.
In many ways this gospel passage is the first public service announcement promoting work-life balance! Let us give with all our attention, let us receive with all our attention and let us strive to strike a grace-filled balance between the two. For in doing so, we are doing the .org we’ve been given to do. And what a good, holy and oh so necessary work it is.
Amen. +

Proper 9C God’s Truth Fuels God’s Dream. Through Us.

+This morning’s collect reads, in part:
“O God you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and your neighbor.”
Sounds simple, right?
But, as Jesus explains in today’s Gospel and as he explained in last week’s, following Jesus, being his disciple, isn’t easy.
Because being a follower of Jesus, being his disciple, proclaiming him as our Lord and our God makes us lambs in the midst of wolves.
It makes us bait.
It makes us targets.
It makes us vulnerable….because love challenges fear, love defeats hate and love, when spread throughout the world, shakes up the status quo.
The Love of God, the loving actions commanded by Jesus— this Love—makes a lot of people really uncomfortable.
    Loving God and Loving our Neighbor is not only being nice and polite and considerate.  Sometimes it’s not any of that!
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor sometimes---oftentimes----means ticking off our neighbor, our family, our fellow parishioners, our co-workers.
Loving God and Loving our neighbor means we have to stand up, speak out and say no to injustice. Why? Because it’s what Jesus did.
Loving God and loving our neighbor means we have to stand up, speak out and say no to hate and intolerance.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means standing up to those who would exclude and belittle others because of the color of their skin, the gender of their beloved or the name of their God. Why? Because it’s what Jesus did.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means confronting those who spew hate speech and showering them with the Love speech of Christ---that is, disputing their hate, challenging their intolerance and refusing to accept that there are just some things (and some people) that cannot be changed.
Loving God and Loving our neighbor means welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means seeking out that stranger and dismantling the systems that lead to people being hungry, naked, lonely and afraid.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means being afraid to say out loud that assault weapons are designed for one thing and one thing only: killing people, but saying it anyway.
 It means being afraid to say there are sensible immigration laws that don’t include, condone or accept imprisoning children as a strategy, and then saying it anyway.
Loving God and loving our neighbor means being afraid to say those things churning in our heart,  but SAYING THEM ANYWAY.
Loving God and Loving our neighbors isn’t easy, but it is absolutely, positively our job as followers of Jesus, as proclaimers of the Good News, as Christians.
     Loving God and Loving our neighbor is God’s truth, it is God’s dream,
it’s God’s goal.
     And the only way it can be reached, the only way God’s dream can come true is through us.
Here and Now.
    We are God’s foot soldiers. Just as Jesus sent out the seventy, two by two, God, through our baptism,  sends us out, one by one, two by two, three by three, congregation by congregation: to Love everyone as we ourselves are loved by God. No exceptions. No exclusions, No “yes buts” everyone, everywhere, always.
       We do this by respecting the dignity of every single human being.  And when we witness someone NOT being treated with dignity, we do something about it.
Every. Single. Time.
     Loving God and loving our neighbor isn’t comfortable, it isn’t easy, it isn’t safe.
But it is what God wants for and expects from us. This dream, this goal, this commandment is what this country was founded on. It may seem we have lost our way, but our readings today tell us—- no matter how lost we feel, God has the pathway back. We just need to follow it.
     It’s tempting to say, “no, this is too hard. This is too big. I can’t do anything to stop this. All I can do is pray, pray that someone smarter, someone bigger, someone stronger can come and fix it.”
    But, as Jesus repeatedly tells us, as the prophets repeatedly show us, as God continually expects of us, it’s the least among us, the most unlikely among us, the regular folk-- you know, you and me-- to change the world.
One act of loving our neighbor at a time.
One act of Loving our God at a time.
    So as we settle into the heart of a glorious Western New York summer, as we gather with friends and family to celebrate this amazing country of ours, as we slow down a bit to rest and rejuvenate, I challenge you…I challenge me….to make this dream of God a reality by standing up, by speaking out and making sure that God’s truth will make Gods dream come true, through us and by us, thanks be to God.
Amen.