Ingest God's Love Aug 19,2012

This week my pals at the Lectionary Lab, affectionately known as “Two Bubbas and a Bible” shared the following story as told by Robert Coleman in his book Written in Blood:
“There was a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. For various reasons, the boy was the only donor whose blood could save his sister. The doctor asked, ‘Would you give your blood to Mary?’ The little boy’s lower lip began to tremble, then he took a deep breath and said, ‘Yes, for my sister.’
After the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, the little boy began to look very worried, then he crossed himself, finally he looked at the doctor and said, ‘When do I die?’”
Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15: 13). The boy in this story had that love for his sister Mary. He was willing to die so she could live.
Ragaei (Rah-jhee) Abdelfattah (Ab-del-fatah), an Egyptian American, was on his second voluntary tour as a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, a job that took him to eastern Afghanistan to partner with local officials and the State Department envoy for nation building—Greg Lodinsky’s brother, Jeff-- to establish schools and health clinics and to deliver electricity. On Wednesday, August 8, as Jeff, Ragaei and three NATO security officers were walking to a meeting, two suicide bombers detonated their vest bombs as they approached the peacekeeping party. Ragaei flung himself over Jeff, losing his own life, while saving his friend’s.
Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15: 13).
The boy in the story was willing to do this.
Jeff’s friend in Afghanistan did do this.
Would we? Would you? Would I? I don’t know.
Would God? Did God? As my father was fond of saying, You bet, God did it in spades.
“For God so loved the world that [God] gave [God’s] only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
This, my friends, is what Jesus is getting at in all this “Bread of Life” stuff we’ve been hearing the past few weeks.
God so loved the world that God came to us, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Fully human yet also fully divine, God gave Godself to us wholly and completely, out of God’s abundant never-ending always-unfolding love FOR US.
God, in the person of Jesus Christ, died on that cross for us. But not because we were bad and not because we were hopeless, but because God wanted to show us, to prove to us, that believing in God defeats death, once and for all. That believing in Jesus, the Son of God, assures us of everlasting—never-ending life.
This late summer dip into the Gospel of John gives us a glimpse into the overarching theme of the fourth gospel: that through a series of signs and wonders, Jesus is shown to be God in the flesh. John uses a number of metaphors to show his readers that Jesus is, indeed, God:  Jesus the one true vine, Jesus the one true bread, Jesus the living water which, when we drink it, will never leave us thirsty. John’s Gospel uses story after story to help us identify just who this Jesus is and why this Jesus is food, indeed.
From the first miracle at Cana in Galilee, when Jesus turns water into wine, to the plea of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well to “drink this living water, always,”(John 4:15) to the feeding of the five thousand, we are led to this place, to this penultimate lesson taught by Jesus and told to us by John: ‘I am the Bread of Life. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’
These are tough words to hear and a difficult concept to grasp, which is why John took so many verses to drive this point home. What John is saying, story after story, is that God’s love, as given to us in Jesus the Christ can’t be explained…it can’t be rationalized…it can’t be figured out without diving in full-bore, headfirst. God’s Love as given to us through Jesus, must be experienced. And it is experienced through the act of receiving communion, of coming, as a community, to this altar, to be fed the bread and wine that has been infused with God’s Love. Because when we receive this bread and this wine, when we take and eat, we become filled…filled with the very Love God gave to us in Jesus the man….a Love that then sends us out to be this Love in the World.
On this altar, week after week, we take these creatures of earth human hands have made—bread and wine---and through our communal prayer of hope, our corporate faith in the promise of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit, they are turned into Divine Food.
 In the mysterious and holy ways of God the mundane is transformed into the magnificent, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary and our own flawed, doubting, questioning selves are turned into Disciples of Christ, Followers of God, Instruments of the Holy Spirit.
So, it’s up to us to come to this altar of God with hands outstretched, ready to be fed this Holy Food. Because, when we eat this Holy Food, when we ingest God’s love, we can be the people God asks us to be. Because by feeding on the Holy Food of Christ we are strengthened, emboldened and encouraged to lay down our life for another. Just like the boy in the story, just like Jeff’s friend and just like Jesus.
Amen.

Halting HALT through Holy Food

+The angel says to Elijah:
“Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” (1 Kings 19:5)
Everyone needs nourishment--strength for this journey we call life. A journey full of ups and downs, highs and lows. Sometimes we just muddle through, while other times we soar and still other times, so haggard by trouble and hopelessness we, just like Elijah in today’s reading from Kings, want to lie down and give up.
Elijah had been on a roll! He had defeated formidable pagan foes and had stood up to crazy old King Ahab’s wife Jezebel after she introduced the pagan ideals to the people in the first place. He had been doing excellent work, but as is the case with anyone who works long and hard at their job, perspective can be lost and suddenly a challenge that, before the stress of all the long hours took its toll, would have seemed difficult but doable feels overwhelming and impossible. Elijah was worn out, cranky and at a loss.
AA has a saying : HALT, H-A-L-T is a slogan that means:  never get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely or too Tired.  The wisdom behind this slogan is that when we get too hungry too angry too lonely or too tired we lose perspective, get run down and become vulnerable. Elijah’s HALT was working overtime… he was too hungry, too angry, too lonely and too tired. And so he plopped down under that broom tree and gave up.
What happens next is a brilliant foreshadowing of our Gospel readings for this month, and a reminder about the importance of spiritual sustenance, about how important it is for us to provide our bodies, our minds and our souls with nourishment.
Exhausted, Elijah falls asleep under the tree, half expecting…hoping...praying… that he would die. That’s how out of sorts he was, Elijah couldn’t see any way out of his distress, so he prayed that God would let him die. But instead of letting him die, God encouraged Elijah to live.
Awakened by the rush of busy angels, or perhaps by the smell of baked goods Elijah is presented with a freshly baked cake and a refreshing jar of water. No doubt Elijah thought he was dreaming, for he just lays back down again until the angel returns, saying, “get up, eat and get going. There is work to do and we need you to be strong for your journey.” So he did. He ate and was strengthened to do the work he was given to do.
He ate and he was strengthened. That’s just what Jesus is telling us to do in the Bread of Life discourse which is our Gospel message for the month of August. Jesus is food indeed, a food that, when we receive it, when we partake of it, will never leave us hungry, will never leave us thirsty. Holy Food for Holy People.
Now this bread of life stuff can go any number of ways—we, as followers of Jesus, as Christians, can be viewed as cannibals (wait til you hear next week’s Gospel, the cannibalism imagery is really difficult to ignore then) or, on the other end, all of this can be viewed as simply a metaphor…nothing more than a fairytale of imagery used by Jesus to make the point that he was the real deal. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between: we aren’t cannibals, nor are we gullible saps falling for this itinerant preacher from Nazareth’s catchy marketing plan.
What we are---what we are called to be—are followers of this man named Jesus, believers in this Messiah the Christ, people who try our very best to live out the ideals handed down to us by teachers, by prophets and by the Son of God.
We are called to do the work of Elijah, to do the work of all the prophets, to do the work Jesus has given us to do.
And to do this work well, we need to nourishment. Nourishment of both body and soul.
The act of receiving communion nourishes us for this work. But our nourishment comes from more than this holy meal. It comes from fellowship, it comes from service, it comes from being a community of people offering refreshment, offering hope, offering a way of life that defeats hunger, anger, loneliness and tiredness. A community that knocks the socks off of HALT.
The holy meal we gather to receive feeds us but without the community that surrounds this meal, there is no nourishment in the sacrament, there is no strength to be gathered from the prayers. This is why I am forbidden from celebrating the Eucharist alone. It means nothing if done in a vacuum, it means nothing if we try and do it alone.
Elijah had run off to be alone, and while by himself, while alone he lost his way. While alone, he lost his will. He needed to, as we heard last week, “get up and walk.” To walk until he got to the other side…to walk until he reached the source of all nourishment: God.  And he did…for forty days he walked until reaching Mt Horeb where God, in that wonderful scene from scripture, nourishes his soul in the absolute quiet that followed the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire. From there, his soul nourished by God, Elijah headed to Damascus where he established a new community of faith to be led by his protégé Elisha. Physically nourished by the angelic meal of fresh baked cakes and cool water, Elijah made his way to the site of his spiritual nourishment and from there he was able to be the prophet he was meant to be. He prophesied to others, making disciples, and creating community.
This is the formula Jesus wants us to follow. We get nourishment from him and from others here in this community, strengthening us to go out into the world, doing the work we’ve been given to do. So get up, eat and be strengthened, we have work to do. Amen.

Just Walk Proper 13 Aug 5 2012

Man, I thought I lived in a fishbowl…but I have the epitome of privacy compared to poor Jesus. This morning the folks he had just fed (in the feeding of the 5,000 from last week)—have gotten hungry again. So…. They start looking for Jesus. Realizing he’s gone, they climb into boats and cross the lake to find him. Now this isn’t some small pond, this is a Lake roughly the size of Chautauqua lake….yet they climb into row boats and cross the lake in search of that miracle food purveyor: Jesus of Nazareth.
People do amazing things when hungry.
Although Jesus isn’t surprised that they’ve come… he is a tad annoyed at their shortsightedness—happy to have their stomachs filled but completely oblivious to the real reason for His presence in their lives….just like we’re often oblivious to the real reason for Jesus’ presence in our lives. You see, Jesus didn’t come to fill our stomachs, Jesus came to fill our souls. But, and Jesus knew this,  it’s really difficult to pay attention to one’s soul if one’s stomach is growling. So, he filled their stomachs hoping—maybe even assuming---that once their stomachs were full, they’d realize just how empty their souls remained. But to do that, to realize how empty we may feel, is not so simple. There’s no definitive signal---like a growling stomach---to tell us we’re spiritually empty, that we need some spiritual nourishment. It takes awhile to figure it out.
And, apparently, it takes awhile to explain it as well.
In John’s gospel, Jesus spends four Sundays trying to get his followers, those then and us now, to distinguish between physical and spiritual hunger. It’s annoying as we hear, again, again, again and AGAIN that the manna from Exodus and the multiplication of loaves and fishes in the gospels is nothing…NOTHING compared to The Bread of Life...the bread that is Jesus.
And while in theory we may join with the folks from the gospel and say, “yes Jesus give us this spiritual bread forever,” it’s a lot more involved than just saying yes. We can’t just say it. We have to live it. We have to believe it. We have to accept it. We have to receive it.
You see, since time began we have been separated from God. And, as I say all the time, God has been, since time began, trying to bridge that gap, trying to reach us, trying to touch us.
And religion, according to philosopher Louis Dupre is how we reach out toward God. It’s how we try to bridge the gap from our end of this divide.
Remember Michelangelo’s depiction of Creation on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? In it is the iconic image of Adam-- stretched out on the ground, dazed and confused, one arm, one hand, reaching out toward an old and slightly wild looking God, who’s also stretching out an arm, a hand, with one finger almost touching Adam’s. In between is a teeny space separating God from humanity. Separating us from God.
Dupre says that our entire life is lived in that tiny space between God’s finger and Adam’s hand. Trying to bridge that gap.
The problem is, we don’t know how. We try to be good and faithful Christians, but it doesn’t always work. It doesn’t work because we forget to do what Jesus told us to do---- believe and to trust in him.
 It doesn’t work because instead of letting go and trusting God, we hold on and try to do it on our own: “Just show us how to do it and we’ll do it ourselves, God. We really don’t need this Jesus fellow…just give us the magic formula and we’ll take care of things.”  That never works. It doesn’t work because it isn’t about us, it isn’t about our filled bellies, it isn’t about what we can do. It’s about what God does. And what God has done is given us Jesus.
Jesus says, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of God will GIVE you” And the people respond, “OK, so how do we learn to get this food ourselves?”
Jesus tries again. “This is the work OF GOD. (God’s work; not our work): That you believe in the one God sent. It’s a gift. God does the doing, the sending. We do the receiving. The accepting.
You see, Jesus is the one who fills up that tiny space between God’s finger and Adam’s hand. Jesus bridges that gap, so tiny in the painting, so vast in our lives. What we need to do is climb up on that bridge, walk across it and touch the outstretched hand of God.
It really is that simple: just walk.
Our own Kathy Boone has given me permission to share a dream she had last year. Nervous about walking across a very rickety bridge while vacationing in Central America, Kathy went to bed the night before this trek across the long and not very sturdy looking bridge, fairly certain she wouldn’t take the walk--that she would stay safely on this side of the divide. But then she had a dream. A dream in which she was standing in a long line of people, all of whom were waiting to cross that bridge. The line was stalled, no one was moving at all and it looked like nobody was going to cross the bridge that day when suddenly, a woman using a walker, a woman bearing a distinct resemblance to our own Marie Hubbard, raised her head and said, simply and firmly: Just walk. When Kathy awoke she realized, “Marie is telling me: go for it. Stop worrying and just do it. JUST WALK.”
That’s really it. The wisdom from one of our own beloved elders, the wisdom of God’s own Son, our Savior: Just walk. When hungry: spiritually, emotionally and thoroughly hungry we are to put one foot in front of the other, and walk across the bridge of faith, the bridge that is Jesus, crossing over into the outstretched arms of our God. +

A Covenant of Abundance: Jubilee Sunday July 29, 2012

Do you know that you’re like Elisha?
Do you know that you’re like Paul?
Do you know that you’re like Jesus?
You are. Each and every one of you…of us.
Each of the aforementioned prophets and teachers of our faith allowed themselves to be taken to places they never would have imagined on their own. They allowed themselves to do things they never would have done on their own. These men, just like all of us here today, were instruments…instruments of God’s unceasing Love for us, of God’s quiet constant reaching out to us.
  Did anyone of us, 18 months ago, imagine that today we’d be celebrating our third Jubilee Sunday; two parishes linked through one covenant agreement, joined in an earnest desire to be the body of Christ in this world?
Our covenant agreement is more than just a clergy-sharing proposition; it connects two parishes with rich and storied histories-- coming together to try something altogether new. And as we all know, as we’ve all felt, and as we’ll will feel again and again and again new isn’t always easy, and new can be scary.
What we proposed to do a little over a year ago, and what we’ve been doing since Pentecost Sunday 2011 is new, is different, is hugely successful and, by the way, is FAR from finished.
Since June of 2011 our two parishes, through our independent and joint ministries have: given away over 1,000 lbs. of pet food through the pet food pantry, provided School 54 with well over 500 brand new books, provided a couple of free community lunches and passed out lots of bottled water. We’ve doubled the hours the people food pantry is open, we’ve hosted countless people through tour groups, school programs, prison ministries, and  the Mayor’s gun buy back initiative. We’ve opened our doors to various and sundry arts organizations, community groups, the AIDS alliance and all sorts and conditions of animals…from a neighbor’s dog recently diagnosed with a terminal illness to foster dogs looking for a new home.  We’ve hosted concerts, plays, recitals and lectures. We continue to offer vocational opportunities to children with disabilities. We’ve become more environmentally responsible by rejecting Styrofoam and embracing real coffee cups, we’ve re-bulbed all of Good Shepherd’s lighting and planted a rain garden.
 We’re in the process of rebuilding the Ascension organ and just the other day several of us moved close to 500 organ pipes to save thousands of dollars in labor costs! We’ve planted a sycamore tree in honor of first responders and blessed the sheriff department’s mounted division.
We’ve expanded our footprint within both of our distinct neighborhoods—so that people who would never set foot in a church for a service, end up worshipping in their own way when they ask—and invited in to—look around and take in our breathtaking worship spaces.
In other words, we’ve done a lot. We’ve done a whole lot. And we’ve done it through hard work, perseverance and commitment.
 And faith. You see faith, when we really let it take hold, faith when we trust that it will take us exactly where we need to be, does, as we heard in Ephesians this afternoon, infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine!
When we entered into this covenant agreement, Ascension was looking for more than a way to survive; we were looking for a way to thrive. And Good Shepherd? Good Shepherd could have just said, “no thank you…we’ve just come through he most trying time in our 125 year history and we’d rather not ROCK THE BOAT. But instead, Good Shepherd said, “sure, let’s see how this covenant relationship will work.” We as a community faith in Parkside, and as a community faith in Allentown said, Absolutely, let’s take a ride through these uncharted waters, let’s try something altogether new.
And today, a mere 13 months from our first Sunday in covenant we are still be in uncharted waters but, thanks be to God, our boat is sea worthy and our resolve is strong.
How in the world did we do it? How in the world are we doing it? The same way Elisha did it in our reading from Kings, the same way Jesus did it in our reading from John and the same way Paul describes in Ephesians: through faith, trust and a willingness to try something new, to try something unfamiliar, to try something that just may, at first glance, seem improbable and maybe even impossible.
We’ve done it by feeling afraid and stepping out in faith. We’ve done it by believing that if we don’t try, we’ll die and if we don’t risk, we’ll stagnate. We’ve done it by welcoming the challenge and accepting the risk. We’ve done it because above all else no matter what our disagreements or challenges may be, we love one another and we love our churches and we want others to know this Love to feel this Love and then to share this Love.
In other words we’ve done it by and through a whole lot of faith in a God who has plans for us too big to imagine, too great to consider and too awesome to deny.
We’ve done it-- you’ve done it-- because, just like Elisha, just like Paul and just like Jesus you’ve let your faith guide you.
You’ve taken 5 loaves and a few fish and fed the multitudes—not because you’re magicians but because you’re Christians.
You’ve taken the barley of the first harvest and fed hundreds. Not because you’re lucky, but because you’re people of faith.
You’ve stopped worrying about what was and opened yourselves up to what is---you’ve focused on what the world needs from us now…and then you’ve done it. Not because you are magicians, or lucky, or even stubborn but because you’re faithful servants of the One who can do—who does--infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine.
And as one of your clergy, as one of your leaders, as one of these individual and joint flocks, I am proud, I am humbled and I am eager to see what’s next.
Amen, Amen, Amen!

Finding God in the Quiet

***Note: this sermon was more experiential than most, making the translation to just words, difficult.

We live in such a loud world. To “unplug” ourselves takes a lot of work---turning off the ringers of our phones, disabling our email, texts and tweets. Shutting off the tv and the radio, the iPod and the ear buds. It is becoming more and more rare to sit in silence.
 But silence, resting in the quiet murmur of creation, is so important.
For it is in this rest, in this quiet, in this silence that we can connect with the Holy, with the Divine.
Jesus knew this:
“The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. He said to them, “come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.”
Jesus was teaching the apostles “self-care.” He knew that they wouldn’t be any good to anyone if they didn’t take care of themselves, if they didn’t spend time alone, in the solitude of quiet. Because, as Jesus knew from his own study of scripture and as countless mystics and teachers have discovered since the time of Jesus: we meet God in the silence.
Consider your daily life, how much silence to you have? How can, how do we meet God if we have so darn much background noise?
In that spirit, I invite you to spend a few minutes with me, exploring quiet and engaging silence:
I will ring this singing bowl, wait a few seconds, read some sacred text, wait about a minute in silence while the words settle into our ears, and our hearts and minds settle into a space of quiet.
I’ll then repeat this process several more times. Sit back and receive whatever the quiet of these next few minutes brings you:

RING BOWL

“For You alone my soul waits in silence; my hope is from the Beloved…
In Silence rests my freedom and my guidance;
for You are the Heart of my heart,
You speak to me in the silence. ” (Psalm 62 paraphrase, Nan Merrill)

[45 seconds]

RING BOWL

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. (1 Kings 19:11-12 CEB)

[45 seconds]

RING BOWL

22 Right then, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. 23 When he sent them away, he went up onto a mountain by himself to pray. Evening came and he was alone. (Mark 14:22-23, CEB)

[45 seconds]

RING BOWL

Let God do God’s work within you. Say a loud no to This World and a quiet Yes to God.  (The Message paraphrase of James 4:8]

[45 seconds]

RING BOWL

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP Prayer 59)
RING BELL

Silence can be frightening, for in silence the truth cries out. But it is only in silence, it is only in quiet, it is only in rest that we can hear the still small voice of the  abundant Love we know as God.
May you find a place for quiet this coming week. And may God find you there, waiting.


Amen.

The Dance Card of the Holy and Undivided Trinity July 8, 2012

As you know, I’m a big fan of Jesus, the man, fully human.. Of course I love his divinity too, but what really gets me excited---day in and day out---is Jesus’ humanity. The fact that Jesus experienced all aspects of the human condition----joy despair, laughter and anger, love and loss, success and failure makes our human condition understandable to our loving Creator God. There’s nothing NOTHING we feel, experience, fret about or rave about that Jesus doesn’t understand. He gets what it’s like to be human because Jesus was fully and completely human. He isn’t just Lord, Jesus is also one of us. It is astounding, overwhelming and, frankly, pretty cool. I love the humanity of God in the flesh: Jesus Christ.
Somehow Jesus being fully human makes his divinity less intimidating to me. It makes his divinity more accessible to me. Jesus is like the perfect conduit…..humanity gets a glimpse of divinity thorough Jesus the Man and the Divine gets a glimpse of the Human through Jesus the Christ. Jesus as human and divine gives a substance to the dance between God and God’s creation which was set in motion at the beginning of time.
No where is this humanity more present than in today’s Gospel when Jesus goes home. We all know that it can be really difficult to go home again. Whenever I return to Chicago the priest at the church I grew up in, the church where my mother and one of my sisters still worship---invites me to celebrate or preach.  It is very gracious of her but whenever I do it, invariably one of the older members of the parish will come up to me afterwards and remark,  “Well I just can’t get over you standing up there like a priest, I mean it was just yesterday that you were in my Sunday school class, that you and your sisters were sitting so wetly in the front pew ….. I just couldn’t believe it was really you up there…after all, I think of you as just a kid.” Try preaching to a congregation full of people who will always see you as George and Elaine’s youngest, Anne, Elizabeth and Sue’s baby sister. Trust me, it isn’t easy! But it’s ok, because I will never be the rector of that church, I’ll never be those people’s priest. For I know that to them, I will always be a Dempesy girl first and foremost.
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is flying pretty high. It’s early in his ministry and he has started to create quite the stir. People are talking about him, following him----just last week we heard about the woman so desperate to be healed that she clamored to touch the hem of Jesus robe, hoping to get some of his healing mojo to work on her. Yes, as Jesus winds his way up through the Galilee hill country to his childhood home of Nazareth he is flying high, wildly successful after just a few short months of public ministry.
Now maybe we aren’t supposed to think of Jesus in this way, but I have to believe he was looking forward to his return home…to see old friends and family, to eat some home cooking, to relax in the comfort of all the old familiar things…and since he’s been so successful there’s that old “hometown boy makes it big” thing to look forward too. Deep within Jesus’ humanity I have to think there was a part of him really looking forward to his mother, his aunts’ his brothers’ and his sisters’ approval---and maybe even their envy. We may never know what exactly he was expecting, but clearly that’s not what he got. For as soon as he arrived, Jesus realized that his  healing powers—his inspirational and life changing preaching….impressed no one in Nanzareth. As one commentator puts it: Up until now, Jesus' version of “Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show and Tent Revival” had been a roaring success. But once he arrives home, nothing worked right!
First, as soon as Jesus arrives we read that they "took offense at him." Can’t you just hear them…”what’s up with Jesus…a few months down in the big city on his own and he gets all caught up in this preaching and teaching thing…a little too big for his britches, don’t you think?”
Then, we learn ”he could do no deed of power there.” That somehow their resentment toward him, their reluctance to accept that he may, just possibly, be something special resulted in his inability to be the Jesus he was elsewhere in Judea.
Which leads to one of the most human portraits of Jesus in the gospels when Mark writes that Jesus "was amazed at their unbelief." He just couldn't believe that their lack of belief was a) so strong and b) so detrimental to what he saw as his job, his calling, his ministry. He was stunned, left with his mouth hanging open. Jesus learned a hard lesson; that there was a limit to his power; it was limited by the people's willingness to receive it.
 What Jesus, the Divine learned when he went home again was that the power of his divinity was wholly dependent on the willingness of his human family and friends to accept it.
No matter what incredible gifts Jesus possessed they were rendered useless in the absence of that acceptance.
Jesus had so much he wanted to show his family and friends, so much that he had learned, so much that he had accomplished. But they weren’t interested in who he had become, for they were stuck in who he had been. And until the folks back home were ready to receive him as the Christ, he would remain, Mary and Joseph’s kind of odd eldest child.
You see, Divinity isn’t meaningful if it isn’t experienced. And it can’t be experienced if it isn’t noticed.
It’s the quintessential lesson our faith: we are partners with God, we are companions of Jesus, we are the instruments of the Holy Spirit.
We are in this together.
As I have mentioned before, the Holy and Undivided Trinity is often depicted as a swirling dance of the three in one, one in three. But, if we really take the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ seriously, if we completely accept that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine then that dance of three needs a fourth.
Us.
The work of God, the ministry of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit is dependent upon our willingness to receive it, our ability to accept it and our longing for it.
The dance card of our Creating, Redeeming and Sustaining God is waiting to be filled, by you and by me.
Amen.

Call and Response: Sprouting God’s Dream for Us. Proper 6 Yr B June 17, 2012

The Parable of the Mustard Seed gives most of us a really warm and fuzzy feeling inside. We feel good knowing that even if our faith is TEENY, it’s enough.
“Phew”…..no heavy lifting, our puny faith will carry the day. But, while it’s true that even the smallest morsel of faith can lead to incredible things, the point of this parable is easily lost on a non-farming culture. You see, the mustard plant, in the ancient world, was viewed as an invasive, out of control, undesirable WEED. (this perspective gained from David Lose’s column at working preacher.org accessed June 14, 2012)  Those itsy bitsy seeds would blow everywhere, infiltrating carefully tilled fields and spreading the mustard plant all over, upsetting the carefully laid out plans of the farmer. Nothing warm and fuzzy there.
In other words, Jesus’ parable, to the ears of his followers in the 1st century did EXACTLY what a parable is supposed to do: make us think of things in a totally new strange and uncomfortable way. This is why Jesus used parables so often—because the truth of living a faithful life, the truth of working to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition here on earth is risky, uncomfortable and upsetting. As Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan tells us,
The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three or four feet, or even higher, it is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to get out of control…   (The Historical Jesus, pp. 278-279 as accessed through workingpreacher.org on 6.14.12)
The kingdom Jesus proclaims isn’t something we can control—it is something that, once sprouted in a community, takes over, upsets and transforms.  It isn’t, as pastor David Lose tells us, something we should want if we’re even slightly satisfied with the way things are. Because the kingdom of Jesus will change EVERYTHING, not just those things we happen to find distasteful and unwanted. The kingdom Jesus speaks of comes to upset the very fabric of this world, the very kingdoms that rule our daily lives. The kingdoms of a “me first” existence. The kingdoms of big business getting bigger on the backs of the underprivileged and the poor. The kingdoms of a city where a high school graduation rate of 53% is something to celebrate. Kingdoms where royalty is made up of supermodels, athletes and reality t.v. stars instead of teachers, parents and prophets.
The good news is that I know most all of us here today are NOT SATISFIED with the way things are, that we can imagine something more than the ruling kingdoms of this world, that we can imagine a world where the humble are exalted, the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the illiterate read, the unemployed work , the fearful are encouraged, the lonely embraced and the lost are found.
I know that we’re a people of hope and a people of action who understand that the mustard seed faith Jesus speaks of has its roots in hope. I also know that this hope isn’t just pie in the sky platitudes for us. I know that the hope found in faith prods and pokes us into taking action. Because once that seed sprouts and those roots take hold our faith, just like the mustard plant, spreads, infiltrates, meanders and edges in. Once our faith sprouts, once the roots of our faith take hold, this faith of ours stops being a noun and starts being a verb.
Which is just what God intends. Just like a planted seed needs sunlight and water to take hold and grow, God takes initiative, plants the seed, but it is our response which helps those Divine Dreams come to life here on earth. And once those dreams are realized, new dreams sprout and grow, and spread. It just keeps going! God has a vision and through God’s call and our response, amazing things happen: a shepherd boy is chosen as king, a mustard seed grows into an immense plant, and a small child from Nazareth grows into the Christ. (Bruce Epperly, Text this Week for Proper6 Yr B)


God’s dreams and our response vary. For God is not “ a homogenous force, evenly distributing inspiration and revelation across the universe.” (Epperly ibid)  Sometimes the seed of faith sprouts into something fierce and intrusive, propelling us into loud and brash acts of faith much like the mustard seed blooms into an uninvited weed spreading all over, taking on a life of it’s own. We’ve seen that with the civil rights actions of the 1960’s-- the race riots, the anti war demonstrations and the uprising at Stonewall. More recently we saw it in Egypt and in Libya and currently it seems to be brewing in Syria. But more often, the seed of faith, planted in us by God through Jesus Christ, sprouts in quieter, more subtle ways…..the point is there’s no telling how and when and where the sprouting will happen. The important thing is that we remain open to it. Because, when we’re open to it, receptive to it, Grace happens. God’s vision for the world is realized through this grace and it, like the mustard seed shows up in all sorts of  places, growing and spreading and at times upsetting the status quo. Grace is when possibilities appear to emerge from nowhere and we, in response, make something happen.
(Epperly ibid).
God calls and we respond…that’s what it’s all about.
People are hungry? We’ll establish a food pantry.
Kids don’t read because they have no books of their own? We give them a book.
Pets can’t be kept because their people can’t afford to feed them? We give them pet food.
A lost soul wanders in among us looking for solace and hope? We great them with a smile, a pat on the back and an invitation to come back anytime.
A small gesture can sprout hope and then the roots become established and amazing, unexpected, uncontrollable things  happen. For the Kingdom of God is amazing, it’s unexpected and it’s uncontrollable, upsetting the best laid plans of you and me. Thanks be to God.