Looking down and in instead of up and out Proper 24B Oct. 20, 2024

 

+This morning the disciples are stressed out—they’ve 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’ve been reading since Labor Day---Jesus has predicted his death not once, not twice, but three times. “Look!” he says, “We’re going up to Jerusalem. I’ll be handed over to the chief priests and the legal experts. They’ll condemn me to death and hand me over to the Gentiles. They’ll ridicule, spit on, torture, and kill me. After three days, I will rise to life again.”
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 that receiving the fullness of God’s grace and glory requires viewing the world through the unblemished eyes of a child.
Today, we hear John and James asking for a special place above all the other disciples. Again, the disciples are thinking of worldly glory instead of Divine Peace.
Who can blame them? When the world around you is falling apart—and pretty much has been your whole life—-it’s difficult to pry your mind from what’s right here in front of your eyes to what lies beyond the now.
I think this predicament of the disciples is similar to the predicament of today.
I think people are horribly frightened.
It seems to me this has been most evident since January 6, 2020 but I also know, from an historical perspective, that this has happened before in the world (Pearl Harbor, 9/11, school shootings, the Tops shooting) and will probably happen again: when we become unsure, nervous, and 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 around us and the world beyond us.
    I preach a lot  about the importance of community and what I’ve come to realize is that the “me me me” of our society isn’t as much about hubris, as it’s about fear.  
Nadia Bolz-Weber, in her 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’s meeting sure and certain death. This is a terrifying prospect 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. They were simple fishermen when this preacher, offering a message of hope, compels them to drop their nets and follow him.
And now he’s leaving them.
Their world was inside out and upside down and they were freaked out. I so get this.
In our world, since 9/11, since January 6,  since the seemingly unending school shootings, our sense of security had been dismantled and we are, most assuredly, unmoored.
It’s a scary time, and has been for some time. The upcoming election doesn’t do much to improve our sense of security does it?
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 to when feeling overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty,  find certainty in the One who tells us that peace is found through service, compassion and care for others.
To look up and out from our fear and insecurity and into the eyes of the poor, hungry, oppressed, lonely,  scared, injured and outcast.
By doing this we will, as he did with his death and resurrection, “liberate many people.”

When we live into the last will be first and the first will be last, when we live into being a servant to all, there we’ll find our greatness. By finding Strength in Weakness and Courage in Fear we’ll find true security and endless peace.
The greatness of God’s love is not found in ourselves, but in our relationship to others.
And that, my friends, is Jesus’ point.. Amen.

Proper 23B An argyument with an innocent God. October 13, 2024

 Have you ever wanted to really go at with God? I mean, have a knock down drag out, no holds barred argument where you tell God all the things about your life which you are furious about and then listen to God try to answer you? Where you ask the age old question of God—why do bad things happen to good people?  
Yes? Well, welcome to the Book of Job. This is how this metaphorical story is set up—God and the number one fallen angel of all time—Satan are having their own argument. Satan maintains that all human beings are corruptible. That, given the right amount of heartache, despair and pain any human being will turn their back on their faith and abandon God. God disagrees and so finally, to settle this debate, God agrees to let Satan have a crack at the most faithful, honest, honorable person in all the world—Job from the fictional land of Uz. God promises not to intervene as long as Satan promises not to kill Job. Satan agrees and then proceeds to do everything EXCEPT kill him.
Job’s wife is so distressed and disgusted by Job quietly accepting all this indignation and humiliation which God is apparently indifferent to that she encourages Job to lie down and die. To stop fighting the good fight and give into what she sees as the inevitable. Then, Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar the Naamahite are so taken by the intensity of Job’s suffering that they sit with him for seven days, horrified by what’s happening. After seven days and nights of silence, Job finally speaks; cursing his life, the day he was born, begging that his very existence be swallowed up in eternal darkness. Whether Job is speaking to his friends, to God or to himself is unclear, but the speech is damning to all, except God. Job will not damn God. He’ll yell at God and ask God why, but he won’t damn the Divine. Sure that bad things only happen to those who deserve it, the friends  try to discern what horrible sin Job has committed to cause such Divine retribution.
Such begins a back and forth debate between Job, his friends and God.
It’s a debate for the ages. At times, Job defends himself, at other times he seems to accept that he’s behaved despicably, even though he has no idea what he’s “done” and still at other times rails at what he considers completely unfair treatment. While Job’s friends put him on trial trying to prove that he deserves what’s happening to him, Job puts God on trial trying to prove to God that he doesn’t deserve all this heartache. There’s a lot of point, counterpoint all adding up to nothing. You see God didn’t cause the suffering of Job, suffering just happens.
Job was so busy trying to prove his innocence he didn’t even realize that God was his companion in all this suffering.
God didn’t do it to Job, but God did live it with Job.  
You’ve heard me tell the story of the suicide of my of the members of my youth group, many years ago. In the sermon I preached at his funeral  I said that while Ian was readying the gun to shoot himself, God was right there with him, screaming for him not to do it. And then immediately upon pulling the trigger, God was there to take Ian home. God is with us through it all. God was with Jesus’s cries on the cross, God was with Job in his trials and God is with us in ours.
It’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for us to comprehend the full depth and breadth of God’s love for us.
What scripture shows us, again and again is that we shouldn’t blame God for our troubles, rather let’s welcome God into them. Because God is already there.
Amen

Don't blame God for our troubles, welcome God into them. Proper 23B

 Have you ever wanted to really go at with God? I mean, have a knock down drag out, no holds barred argument where you tell God all the things about your life which you are furious about and then listen to God try to answer you? Where you ask the age old question of God—why do bad things happen to good people?  
Yes? Well, welcome to the Book of Job. This is how this metaphorical story is set up—God and the number one fallen angel of all time—Satan are having their own argument. Satan maintains that all human beings are corruptible. That, given the right amount of heartache, despair and pain any human being will turn their back on their faith and abandon God. God disagrees and so finally, to settle this debate, God agrees to let Satan have a crack at the most faithful, honest, honorable person in all the world—Job from the fictional land of Uz. God promises not to intervene as long as Satan promises not to kill Job. Satan agrees and then proceeds to do everything EXCEPT kill him.
Job’s wife is so distressed and disgusted by Job quietly accepting all this indignation and humiliation which God is apparently indifferent to that she encourages Job to lie down and die. To stop fighting the good fight and give into what she sees as the inevitable. Then, Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar the Naamahite are so taken by the intensity of Job’s suffering that they sit with him for seven days, horrified by what’s happening. After seven days and nights of silence, Job finally speaks; cursing his life, the day he was born, begging that his very existence be swallowed up in eternal darkness. Whether Job is speaking to his friends, to God or to himself is unclear, but the speech is damning to all, except God. Job will not damn God. He’ll yell at God and ask God why, but he won’t damn the Divine. Sure that bad things only happen to those who deserve it, the friends  try to discern what horrible sin Job has committed to cause such Divine retribution.
Such begins a back and forth debate between Job, his friends and God.
It’s a debate for the ages. At times, Job defends himself, at other times he seems to accept that he’s behaved despicably, even though he has no idea what he’s “done” and still at other times rails at what he considers completely unfair treatment. While Job’s friends put him on trial trying to prove that he deserves what’s happening to him, Job puts God on trial trying to prove to God that he doesn’t deserve all this heartache. There’s a lot of point, counterpoint all adding up to nothing. You see God didn’t cause the suffering of Job, suffering just happens.
Job was so busy trying to prove his innocence he didn’t even realize that God was his companion in all this suffering.
God didn’t do it to Job, but God did live it with Job.  
You’ve heard me tell the story of the suicide of my of the members of my youth group, many years ago. In the sermon I preached at his funeral  I said that while Ian was readying the gun to shoot himself, God was right there with him, screaming for him not to do it. And then immediately upon pulling the trigger, God was there to take Ian home. God is with us through it all. God was with Jesus’s cries on the cross, God was with Job in his trials and God is with us in ours.
It’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for us to comprehend the full depth and breadth of God’s love for us.
What scripture shows us, again and again is that we shouldn’t blame God for our troubles, rather let’s welcome God into them. Because God is already there.
Amen

God is listening are we talking? Proper 22B

 Remember a few weeks ago we had a gospel reading in which the disciples say to Jesus, “Master this teaching is difficult.” Today I want to say to Jesus, “ditto.”
These sentences about divorce are difficult. It’s important to know that the Pharisees are trying to back Jesus into a corner but, as usual, Jesus gives as well as he gets. But that’s not what’s burning a hole in the guts of those of you who are divorced, so here’s the deal: I would bet that none of you who are divorced went into your marriage with no intent of it not lasting until you were parted by death. The question of divorce during Jesus’s time was the penchant of men to divorce women willy nilly. Of course by divorcing them the men are assuring that the women—who remember had no standing in society without connection to a man---will be ostracized and marked as “tainted,” forever. So, stop beating yourself up!
I think what follows this exchange with the Pharisees shows just how disinterested Jesus was in the rules and restrictions of the “law.” People were bringing little children to Jesus but the disciples were forbidding it, not wanting to disturb the teacher. Of course, Jesus rebukes the 12 because what Jesus knows, and quickly tells us, is that the kingdom of God is made for children…that how we are to receive the gifts that God freely and abundantly gives us as children do: with glee and gladness.
Which brings us to the collect for today—one of the best collects in the church year. Remember that the collect of the day is the prayer of the day, outlining a theme. Let me repeat it here:
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
God is always ready, willing and I’d even say anxious to hear from us. It is us –we—who forget, fail, and  resist reaching out to God and, when we finally do receive that which God is  offering us, often feel that we don’t deserve that which God is giving us. Or probably more often than we care to admit, we don’t desire that which God is offering us---because God is almost always offering us opportunities to serve in God’s name, to give in God’s name, to do in God’s name, but we tend to turn away from those opportunities because they’re usually inconvenient, uncomfortable and maybe even risky. Which is exactly what the next sentence of the collect references;  “forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those things for which we are not worthy to ask…”
Friends, today is the official kickoff of our stewardship campaign—Walk in Love—I’ve written more about this in the bulletin, let me just say that I ask you to pray—mightily—to hear, see, and notice those things God is presenting to you. Do not give back to God your last fruits, instead have the courage and the willingness to give back to God your first fruits. Think not of what you can afford to give, but think about what you cannot refrain from giving. May I suggest you pray this collect all week and then listen for what it is God is calling you—and us—to do.
Let the little children come to me,  it is for these that the Kingdom is made: innocent, open, risk-taking and ever loving children. I pray to be one, too. How about you?
Amen.

We needn't bear it alone Proper 21B

 In our reading from Numbers, the Israelites are whining, Moses is complaining, and God, well God problem-solves. The Israelites are tired of wandering and the lure of the Promised Land has lost it’s luster while the tribulations of captivity in Egypt don't seem so bad anymore. Besides that, they’re sick and tired of manna, longing for meat, fish, onions and garlic. They’re fed up. And Moses is overwhelmed saying: “I can’t bear this people on my own. They’re too heavy for me.”
They’re too heavy for me, God. Gimme a hand. But, instead of taking the burden on God’s own shoulders, God asks Moses to bring in 70 elders of the community upon whom God will place the power of prophecy.
In other words, God delegates.
God realizes that what makes this whole faith thing work well is community. Especially, communities of faith committed to each other and God through acts of kindness, charity, and love.
      I think, in our own communities of faith, we can forget this responsibility to and for one another. As Christians of the Episcopal type in this region of the world,  we have responsibilities and duties, promises to make, and to keep.
First and foremost, of course, is to love our God with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as we are ourselves loved. We all want this, right? But the thing is, this isn’t a simple arrangement between each of us individually and God. As God taught Moses in our first reading this morning, God is not interested in being the singular source of Love for everyone. Now hear me clearly---God Loves each and everyone of us fully and without exception…. but what God teaches us is that God’s Love grows, strengthens, expands, and intensifies when it is shared among us.
God, inspires, encourages, enables and emboldens each and every one of us to be a conduit of that Love.
To be God’s instrument of Love to all whom we encounter.
Obviously, God’s love in and of itself is strong. But what we learn, when we’re active members of the Body of Christ, is that this Love becomes stronger, this Love becomes more vibrant, this Love becomes MORE when it’s embraced, cherished and shared.
God tells us:
 Feeling my Love? Share it.
Longing for my Love? Receive it from another.
Can’t feel it? Can’t find it? Trust that someone else is carrying it for you, that someone else is holding it until such a time as you can receive; until such a time you can feel it until such a time you can carry it.
God’s Love needs us.
And so, my sisters and brothers in Christ, communities of faith with grand traditions alone and with new traditions forming through our initiative, what do we do? How do we strengthen God’s Love?
Feed the hungry? Sure, that’s always a good idea.
Clothe the naked? You betcha.
Stand against injustice and respect the dignity of every single human being? Absolutely.
But….before we do any of these things, before we embark on our collective work  we must first and foremost remember to love one another. And the absolute best way to live out this love?
Pray for each other.
What I’ve learned is fundamental to the health of every community of faith is: Prayer.
Intentional prayer for one another, it’s life giving and it’s the work of God. So please, Pray for each other in your congregations and in the other congregations of the GRI. For when we pray for each other, we remember that we’re not alone, that we needn’t carry the load alone. [ you’ ll find the cycle of prayer in your bulletins]. I firmly believe that if we are intentional about this prayer, our love for each other will strengthen and grow.
Moses called the 70 elders, Jesus sent out the 72.
Let us send each other out, enveloped in prayerful love.
Whatever struggles you’re facing in Medina, Holley, Albion, Attica, Warsaw, Perry, Stafford, Leroy or Batavia, let’s carry them together, by doing that, we’re doing God’s will.

Amen.