Proper 22 Yr B St Martin’s Grand Island God’s Listening? Are we Talking?

+“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

For us to fully and truly be who it is God created us to be, for us to be the followers of Jesus Jesus wants us to be, we must receive the glory and wonder and grace of God----with as much excitement, as much innocence as a child who is reaching out for a hug. 

As a matter of fact, I encourage all of us, when we consider presenting ourselves to God to remember that God sees us as little children and that when we pray, God receives us just as we receive a small child who runs towards us, arms outstretched. We open our arms to receive the fullness of their being, whether it’s sobs of fear, shouts of glee or cries of pain, we wrap them in our arms and soothe them with all our might. This is exactly what God does whenever we engage God.

The trick is. The problem is. The issue is….engaging God. You see, we just don’t reach out to God nearly enough. So many of us put caveats on our prayer life---"I’m not worthy enough, God doesn’t want to hear my petty concerns, God has bigger fish to fry.” Right? WRONG.

Listen to this morning’s collect again: 

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. 

God is ALWAYS more ready to hear than we are to pray. 

In other words, whenever we pray, whenever we reach out to God…no matter how long it’s been since we’ve reached out…God is ready, willing, eager to receive  our prayer…regardless of what we’ve done or left undone. No Matter What.

At the end of the day, God is ready to receive all of it from us including, as our Collect states, 

“those things of which our conscience is afraid.” The level of our heartache, the depth of our difficulty, the breadth of our mistakes will never diminish the complete, thorough, perfect Love of God. Be not afraid Jesus says throughout the Gospels. Do not be afraid, I will not turn away from you. 

And you know what? He didn’t, he hasn’t and he won’t.

In this morning’s Gospel, as Jesus welcomes the children who ae clamoring for him Jesus is telling the disciples, the Pharisees and everyone within earshot---including us--- “all my Father wants, all the Creator of all things wants is…. You. Warts, doubts, worries, joys, hopes, dreams and all.” 

God wants us.

On this first Sunday after Fr. Earle’s retirement. On this last Sunday before the Bishop and I entrust you to the weekly care and concern of Fr. Chris, the message I have for you is this:

All is well. God hasn’t blessed this place because of Fr. Earle. Nor is God blessing us today because of the Bishop or me, nor will God bless you next Sunday because Fr. Chris is standing in this pulpit, no God’s blessing is poured upon us because this is what God does…this is what God wants….this is what God longs for….

To be in a wondrous, honest, ongoing and glorious relationship with us.

God wants to hear from you, God wants to walk with you, God wants to sit with you. God wants to be with you. Even when it feels weird, or scary, or different because Earle isn’t here. Earle and Paula have taken their leave of this place because it was time. 

For them and for you. 

No matter how wrong that may feel, no matter how scary it may seem, no matter how unsure you may all feel---change is here and a new day has dawned.This morning my great neohew awakened his grandfather VERY early by patting his Buppy’s cheek and saying, “Buppy, it’s a new day, wake up and watch the sunrise with me.” 

Friends It’s New Day, A Bright Dawn—get up, God has some stuff in store for you! All of it may not be joyful, all of it won’t be easy, some of it will be tough, some of it will wonderful, some of it will be astounding and all of it will take you from where you are right now, to where it is the Holy Spirit is calling you to go. 

And how do you find out where it is the Holy Spirit is leading? How do you discern God’s will for you at this time and in this place? How do you know if what you are doing is “right?”

Well, it’s right there in the Collect I mentioned before:

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….

Folks: 

Pray whenever, where ever, however. God doesn’t care how we do it, God just wants us to do it. For when we pray God listens. When we pray, it’s just us and God. It’s just us, arms outstretched running toward the One who never thinks we’re too messy, too confused, too full of doubt, too angry, too scared, too lost, too ANYTHING, to not be welcomed into the presence of the One who simply loves us more than we can ever imagine. 

Let us pray:

Holy God of All, I present to you the people of St Martin’s: faithful followers who want only to do your will. Open their hearts and their souls to You;  pour the Holy Spirit upon them leading them to places they may never thought they could go and to reach heights they’ve not even imagined.  We pray all this through your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Running Toward God in Genesee County LEROY Running Toward God In Genesee County STAFFORD Proper 21B

STAFFORD
+There’s an image from today’s readings that I just couldn’t shake all week.  It’s from the Collect of the Day—reading, in part:
“Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure.”
I love the image of us running toward God.
What makes you run toward God? What draws you? What implores you to move toward, rather than away, from the Divine?
The truth for me is that I run toward God when my own way of doing things, my own best efforts, have failed and I find myself in a bit of a mess.
I think what stuck with me this week, a week when our country seems to be at war with itself, a week when the pain of so many was put on full display, is that God doesn’t want any of this for us, for the world. But God needs us to participate in making the changes needed to bring God’s promises to their fullness here on earth.
I think that’s what this collect is reminding us about---that God doesn’t just swoop in whenever God feels like it. No God waits for us to come forward, arms outstretched, ready to receive the grace, mercy, pity and promise of God.
       Faith is a two-way street. God doesn’t want us to be passive receivers of God’s grace, God wants us to be active seekers of God’s Grace and then active purveyors of God’s love in our world.
When we fail to run toward God, when we fail to be eager seekers of God’s grace and love, when we insist that we can Do It Ourselves, we find ourselves in a mess.
And what a mess it is.
Watch the news, it seems as if all we do is yell at each other, insult each other, accuse each other, demean each other.
Look around, it’s as if life itself, that incredible gift bestowed upon each and every one of us by and through our loving, life giving and liberating God (PB Michael Curry), has become disposable in our world. Murder rates are high, mass shootings have become commonplace and intolerance? Well intolerance seems to permeate throughout our culture.
It’s not pretty, is it?
Why God hasn’t given up on us, why God hasn’t just turned that Divine back on us is beyond me. But here it is, right there is today’s Collect, God pours mercy upon us, God has pity for us, God loves us, God roots for us, God longs for us to accept the offer of grace upon grace, hope upon hope and love upon love.
      I don’t know about you, but I need to hold onto this promise of God with all my might. I need to be washed in the fullness of God’s grace, I need to revel in the heavenly treasure, because left to my own devices, left to our own devices we will—we have---made a mess of our world.
        OK, so I know this may not be the most uplifting sermon you’ve ever heard, but bear with me, for out of the darkness and despair of the world I see glimmers of hope. Right here. Right now. In Stafford NY
         You se, you have the secret. We have the secret. We have the way forward, we know that in spite of the anger and the discord and the hopelessness displayed in our world we know there’s another way, a better way, the only way:
The Love and Peace of God as given to us by and through the person of Jesus Christ.
We know that God has hope for us, that God’s promise is possible. One kind act. One hopeful act, one dedicated, loving act at a time.
I know that here at St Paul’s money is tight, worries keep multiplying and that it can feel as if you are out here in this beautiful countryside alone. That if only someone from the diocese, or the wider church, or the latest church growth book would tell you how to fill these pews, balance your budget and lift the burden of worry off of you, all would be well.
The bad news is, I don’t have that. But what I do have is a story-- one I tell all the time. It’s story of what I witnessed here two years ago when I last visited. The details may not be wholly accurate but this is my memory:
During announcements someone stood up and said that the previous week they had passed the Methodist Church during their weekly free meal. The line was especially long because they didn’t have enough help. The man who announced that here said, “can’t we help our neighbors, help our neighbors? I’m going to be there next week, who else would like to join me?” One by one well over ¾ of you raised your hands.
It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen. You were asked, and your neighbors received.
That’s grace in action. That’s God’s promise being obtained, that’s partaking in the heavenly treasure of God. For the heavenly treasure is nothing more—and nothing less—than loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s what we’re called to do. Love God. Love Neighbor. And you exemplify it. Perfectly. Keep it up. Look for the dark places, the hurting places, the lonely places in your world and enter those places, with light, with love, with hope. I know you are burdened --how can you keep it all going? We struggle with this worry every single day at the Diocesan offices. And I know at times it’s hard to see the forest of Love among the tress of worry, but, my friends, you are changing this world through your acts of love. What you do does make a difference. Thanks be to God.  Amen.

LEROY
+There’s an image from today’s readings that I just couldn’t shake all week.  It’s from the Collect of the Day—reading, in part:
“Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure.”
I love the image of us running toward God.
What makes you run toward God? What draws you? What implores you to move toward, rather than away, from the Divine?
The truth for me is that I run toward God when my own way of doing things, my own best efforts, have failed and I find myself in a bit of a mess.
I think what stuck with me this week, a week when our country seems to be at war with itself, a week when the pain of so many was put on full display, is that God doesn’t want any of this for us, for the world. But God needs us to participate in making the changes needed to bring God’s promises to their fullness here on earth.
I think that’s what this collect is reminding us about---that God doesn’t just swoop in whenever God feels like it. No God waits for us to come forward, arms outstretched, ready to receive the grace, mercy, pity and promise of God.
Faith is a two-way street. God doesn’t want us to be passive receivers of God’s grace, God wants us to be active seekers of God’s Grace and then active purveyors of God’s love in our world.
When we fail to run toward God, when we fail to be eager seekers of God’s grace and love, when we insist that we can Do It Ourselves, we find ourselves in a mess.
And what a mess it is.
Watch the news, it seems as if all we do is yell at each other, insult each other, accuse each other, demean each other.
Look around, it’s as if life itself, that incredible gift bestowed upon each and every one of us by and through our loving, life giving and liberating God (PB Michael Curry), has become disposable in our world. Murder rates are high, mass shootings have become commonplace and intolerance? Well intolerance seems to permeate throughout our culture.
It’s not pretty, is it?
Why God hasn’t given up on us, why God hasn’t just turned that Divine back on us, is beyond me. But here it is, right there is today’s Collect, God pours mercy upon us, God has pity for us, God loves us, God roots for us, God longs for us to accept the offer of grace upon grace, hope upon hope and love upon love.
     I don’t know about you, but I need to hold onto this promise of God with all my might. I need to be washed in the fullness of God’s grace, I need to revel in the heavenly treasure, because left to my own devices, left to our own devices we will—we have---made a mess of our world.
OK, so I know this may not be the most uplifting sermon you’ve ever heard, but bear with me, for out of the darkness and despair of the world I see glimmers of hope. Right here. Right now.
In LeRoy, NY.
         You see you have the secret. We have the secret. We have the way forward, we know that in spite of the anger and the discord and the hopelessness displayed in our world we know there’s another way, a better way, the only way:
The Love and Peace of God as given to us by and through the person of Jesus Christ.
We know that God has hope for us, that God’s promise is possible. One kind act. One hopeful act, one dedicated, loving act at a time.
I don’t know who manages your Facebook page, but bravo! A couple of times a week I get a notice that St Mark’s has a new post and when I click on it I find God’s Love on display, in action, right here, right now. Whether it is a word of scripture, a beautiful photograph, the summer lunch program or an invitation to the community gathering at St Mark’s as you grapple with how engage in civil, loving, respectful discourse and active and open listening, St Mark’s is a beacon in this area of what our Presiding Bishop calls the Way of Love. The Way of Love, the Way of Christ, the Way of Light, the Way of God is a way of peace, a way of understanding, a way of respect…It is a way of Grace, a way of promise, a way of treasure. The answer to the problems which face most of the churches in this region, in this country, in this world is right here, among you. A willingness to tackle the tough issues, a willingness to reach out a helping hand, a willingness to bring dignity to every single human being in this area.
 I know you are burdened by building issues, money issues, church growth issues. I know at times it’s hard to see the forest of Love among the tress of worry, but, my friends, one kind act at a time, one reach across the aisle at a time, one loving, life giving, and liberating act at a time you, the people of St Mark’s are running toward the promise of God. And for that we rejoice and thank our wondrous, awesome and grace-filled God. AMEN.

Ephphatha and the Syro-Phonecian Woman: A Lesson in Guts and Openness Proper 18B Sept. 9, 2018 Final Sermon Trinity Hamburg

+The Syro-Phonecian woman had guts. Some might even say gall. She bested Jesus in a debate about who deserves God’s mercy. At the time of this encounter with the woman, Jesus didn’t know he was the Messiah for all people—she, through her debate with him--- enlightens Jesus. This encounter between Jesus and the woman comes early enough in his ministry that Jesus is still finding his way….realizing that he’s not only the messiah for the Jewish people but is indeed the messiah for everyone, everywhere, always.
But in today’s gospel, Jesus still thinks he’s only been sent for the Jews, which is why he rudely—and I mean rudely—dismisses this “unclean woman.” She’s unclean, according to Jewish purity laws, because she is not Jewish, she’s a foreigner, a gentile, a Syro-Phonecian (called a Caananite in Matthew’s Gospel)!
Now, you may be surprised to hear me say that Jesus didn’t know something but, it’s clear to me---and you are free to disagree---that Jesus is corrected, taught, enlightened by the Syro-Phonecian woman.
I actually find it refreshing, that Jesus could be wrong about something. But more than Jesus being wrong, what I find most amazing in this reading is the grace with which the woman responds.
Jesus insults her--- really insults her---yet she doesn’t yell at him, she doesn’t cry, she isn’t struck dumb by his insolence, she simply replies to him calling her a dog with a logical argument: “you may think of me as a dog, she says, but even dogs get the crumbs. I’m not asking for the fullness of your glory, I’m just asking for the crumbs. For the crumbs are better than nothing and I know what you can do, so I’ll take even just a portion.” This display of great faith in Him and great love for
 her daughter turns Jesus’ heart and ultimately changes his mind.
It’s a startling Gospel story and one that has infuriated women for generations. All our readings this morning are about the danger of judging a book by its cover, the danger of excluding people from our lives because of the size of their paycheck, the color of their skin, the name of their God, the gender of their beloved, the party affiliation on their voter registration card.
Culminating with this Gospel reading we’re told--- compassion, wisdom, and love can come from all sorts and conditions of people. Be slow to judge and quick to welcome…for there are angels all around us, eager to teach us exactly what it is we may need to learn, even –especially- when we don’t know we need to learn it! Just like Jesus.
But that’s not all I want to talk about  this morning.
No on this morning, the last morning before your new Priest arrives, I want us to talk a bit about where you’ve been—where we’ve been---as you ready yourself for where you and Shannon will go from here!
In August of 2016, when I drove out here to meet with Gretchen and Cami after Blane’s hospitalization in I had never been here, never worshipped at Trinity , Hamburg before. But over the course of the next two years we came to know each other well. We walked through some tough times together--- and now, like a parent leaving her child in his freshmen dorm room, I am turning y’all over to Shannon and I am turning Shannon over to you. It’s a time of great expectation and hope.
Friends, while you look forward to all that is new don’t forget what has been and what you’ve been through---the great times, the bad times, all of it. Because all of it has lead to this moment in time. All of it makes Trinity Hamburg who she is. Embrace who you have been as you embark on who you will become.
I’m honored to have walked part of this walk with you and I promise to be back as much as Shannon can stand having me around!
Now, back to the Gospel for a moment, because the encounter with the Syro-Phonecian woman is only the first half of our gospel for today. The second half of the story is about the deaf man coming to Jesus for healing. It is about Jesus opening the man’s ears.
Jesus says, Ephphatha. It means “be open.”
 To you, the faithful of Trinity, Hamburg: EPHPHATHA be open, be open to your past, be honest about it, learn from it, but do not stay in it for staying in it is to close you off from all that is and all that can, should and will be.
Ephphatha. Be open… be open to try new things, be open to risk failing for when you are willing to fail, you quite often succeed.
 Ephphatha be open and be brave enough to speak the truth. To yourselves and to one another.  
Ephphatha:  be open to all sorts and conditions of people that come through these doors and more importantly be open to all those whom you encounter outside these doors. Invite them to come in and to be opened—opened to the amazing, outlandish, incredible, and abundant love of God as experienced through Jesus Christ in this place.
Because when you do that, when speak honestly and hear openly you become a safe place for an increasingly hurting and lost world. A world looking for a place to safely be in the presence of truth. The truth that is Jesus Christ. My friends, I love you all and I can’t wait to see what happens next. May God bless you and may God keep you and may God continue to pour out Divine grace on each and every one of you.  Amen.

Allow the Cart of Rules to Help, Rather than Hinder, the Horse of Faithful Living.

+As a child I was terribly shy, had school phobia, and was basically afraid of my own shadow. It was a tough way to grow up and anxiety remains something I live with daily. The difference is, I’ve developed coping strategies to manage the symptoms. One of those strategies is learning what the lay of the land is before I embark on something new. As a young professional looking for work, I would drive to the site of an interview the day before so I could scope out the route to the building. Why?
I don’t like surprises; I like to know what I’m getting into. It’s one of the reasons I like rules so much. I may not follow them all the time, but I like to know what the rules are before plunging in. Knowing what the expectations are—knowing what is acceptable and what is not---is a coping strategy I utilize to manage my chronic anxiety. It works and my life got a lot easier once I figured this out.
That’s what rules, expectations, guidelines do for us…. they help us to manage our behavior so that nothing gets out of hand. My checking out the lay of the land before I go to an unfamiliar place is a functional coping mechanism but, if I needed to go to the place sixteen times before feeling comfortable then this coping mechanism would go from functional to dysfunctional.
It’s a matter of degrees.
So when the Pharisees in today’s Gospel get upset over the cleanliness practices of the disciples they’re putting the cart of rules ahead of the horse of living. As Jesus says, if what comes out of your mouths is vile, than what goes into it doesn’t really matter. If your “coping mechanism” your “rule” your “guidelines”, your “ we’ve always done it this way,” get in the way of being a compassionate, loving, responsible, caring person, then what is the point?
Which brings us to our reading from the Epistle of James. A very short letter, the excerpt from today is brilliant: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
James is onto something here---don’t just spew commandment after commandment, rule after rule, rather allow these guidelines to lead you into living a good, a Godly life.
According to James all we do that is good---the big stuff--like helping the poor and the needy, standing up against injustice and caring for our environment-- to the small stuff like holding the door open for someone—all of these actions come from God.
Think about this: when you’re driving to work or to school and wave a car into the lane ahead of you; when you help a classmate or a co-worker with a problem, when you lend your Wegman’s or Tops card to the person in front of you in line; when you thoughtfully choose the candidate to vote for based on what they say they will do for the needy of our community---every single good thing you do comes directly from God, directly from, as James’ puts it: above.
We are all INSTRUMENTS of God’s Love, of God’s Grace, of God’s Goodness. All of us. In all we do. All the time. Wherever we find ourselves— work, school, volunteering, recreating, socializing, God is at work, through us.
In all we do, God is there, USING us to further God’s purpose: to bring the entire world --all 7 1/2 billion of us-- within God’s Loving and enduring embrace. This is James’ message. Specifically he tells us behaviors to avoid: not listening, being quick to lose our temper and lavishing in sordidness. He then suggests behaviors to embrace, to cultivate:
-- be quick to listen, slow to speak, and eager to care for those most vulnerable.
  The good news about James’ message is this---all of these things are within our reach. What parent doesn't want to be slower to anger with his or her children? What friend doesn't want to be a better listener? Who doesn’t want to help and support those in need?
James encourages us not just to think the faith, but to do it.”  To allow the cart of rules to help, rather than hinder the horse of faithful living.
James is reminding us that our faith isn’t something to be exercised once a week on Sunday, within these walls, but is, instead, something to be lived 24/7.
Which makes this such a good reading for Labor Day weekend. Because faith is at work in all we do, including our labor. As theologian David Lose states: Sunday is not the pinnacle of the Christian week, it’s intended to serve and support our Christian lives the rest of the week–Monday through Saturday. On Sundays we’re refreshed and renewed through the Word of God, the Food of God, the forgiveness of God and the Fellowship of God. Then, once refreshed and renewed, we’re called, commissioned, and sent back into the world to work with God for the health of the people God has put all around us.”   We are God’s instruments of Love in this world. Us. You and me
God gives us work to do, tasks large and small. Our Labor Day message, our everyday message, the message I want to give you, on this last Sunday before the next chapter of life here at St Paul’s Cathedral is this:  go out into the world, seeking and serving God in all whom you encounter, out in the world and within the walls of this storied church.
To you, the faithful of St Paul’s: labor on in God’s vineyard, continue to be a beacon of hope and love for this city and for this region and with Dean Derrick, Labor On in the vineyard of our Lord, igniting the Beloved Community, right here and right now.  +

The Bread of Life and the Armor of our Faith Strengthens Us to Do What is Right While Changing What is Wrong Proper 16B Grace Lockport Aug 26 2018

+Today we come to the end of what is commonly referred to as the Bread of Life Discourse in John’s Gospel. The stage was set on the last Sunday of July when we heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. In this story Philip is unbelieving---overwhelmed by the prospect of feeding over 5,000 people with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread---so Jesus begins to compare and contrast the food that perishes vs the food that doesn’t. And then for the next four Sundays endless rhetoric about Jesus being this Bread of Life. At first Jesus was being somewhat vague in exactly what he meant by “I am the bread of life.” It seemed he was just riffing on what had happened with the feeding stories— that the physical hunger we feel can never be fully and forever satisfied, but that belief and faith in the eternal food—the Bread of Life--  will stave off our spiritual hunger forever. 

But then, especially the last two Sundays, Jesus gets real graphic—- we must eat of his body and drink of his blood in order to be in full relationship with him and therefore, with God. 

“Eat my flesh, drink my blood.” Even though we celebrate the Eucharist every week, even though we hear “Take, Eat and Take drink” every week, there is something about how John phrases it or perhaps it is how relentless the message has been, that by this week, the last Sunday of the bread of life discourse, many of us are at the point of shouting “all right already….we get it. You are the bread of life, unless we eat of your body and drink of your blood we’ll never enter the kingdom of God. Got it…can we move on now?” 

But…being a former psychotherapist I can’t help but remember one of the first things I learned in counseling school—-if a client keeps coming back to a particular topic, regardless of what they identify as their presenting issue——the topic they keep returning too? That’s the real issue, that’s the real point.

      So, in that vein, I have resisted the temptation of many a preacher these past weeks who have avoided John’s Gospel, focusing instead on the literature of the Hebrew prophets and the poetry of the letter to the Ephesians. I can’t let people repeatedly, week in and week out, hear things like:

“Those who eat my body” and just let that go. So here I am, for the fourth straight week, diving into the Bread of Life!”

     Today, as Jesus winds down the 50 plus verse soliloquy on how his body is food indeed, and our reading from Ephesians emphasizes the importance, the absolute necessity, of clothing ourselves in the armor of God’s love to combat the forces of darkness and evil in the world, we can connect what Jesus is saying through John to what Paul is saying to the church in Ephesus. 

      You, Jesus, crucified and risen, is indeed the fuel of our faith. Abiding in, dwelling in him, and he in us clothes us with an armor that can—and does—protect us from what ails this lost and increasingly hurting world. 

Abiding in God is what protected the ancient Israelites as they fled the slavery and oppression of Pharaoh, it’s what protected Mary the mother of Jesus as she lived into saying yes to God, it’s what protected Joseph as he refused to turn his back on Mary but instead stood by her side doing the right thing for her, the right thing for God. 

Abiding in God through Christ, wearing the full armor of God is what gave Martin Luther King the courage to have a dream, it’s what fueled the men at Stonewall to confront the brutality of the police, it’s what fills our hearts, minds and souls when we stand up against hatred, bullying and violence. It’s what makes our hearts sink and our tempers flare when we hear some Roman Catholic leaders seemingly defend child molesters instead of ensuring that God’s children are always safe in their churches. 

Abiding in God through the nourishment of all that Jesus was and is strengthens us to fight the good fight, to walk the lonely mile and to sing the song of faith through the words of our Eucharistic Prayer: Take Eat, this is my body, given for you. 

Folks, we are to take and remember. 

We are to remember the faith and the courage of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Rachel. We are to remember how Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathon, Tamar, Deborah, Judith, Elizabeth, Zechariah,J ohn, Joseph and Mary all wore the armor of God protecting themselves against those who said no while following God’s urging to say yes,  to do the right thing.

By taking and eating we remember Jesus.By taking and eating we are clothed in the armor of God. 

By coming to this altar to be fed, we are emboldened, strengthened, prodded and pushed to turn this world, through our own acts of kindness, justice and mercy, into the vision and dream God has had for us since the beginning of time.

The Bread of Life and the Armor of our Faith strengthens us to do what is right while changing what is wrong. Right here and right now, the world needs us to do this. So, take, eat and do the work that we have been given to do. Love God, love our neighbor and change the world.

Amen.

Take and Eat: For Alone We are Nothing, But Together We Are Everything Proper 15 St Martin-in-the-Field Grand Island Aug 19, 2018

+Bishop Bill shared this story with me: he was officiating at a funeral for people who were not familiar with the church. But the family, for reasons unknown to the Bishop, but clearly important to them, wanted communion at the service, so in a funeral chapel, not one of our churches, Bishop Bill officiated and celebrated the Holy Eucharist. When the time came for communion, the Bishop said that anyone who felt drawn to receive communion was invited to do so. As he distributed communion he noticed a little boy in the back of the chapel…it was clear that the boy was “feeling drawn” but didn’t come forward. Later at the reception, the Bishop spoke to the boy’s father who said the boy desperately wanted to receive communion but said, “I can’t, we’d be eating Auntie’s body.”
It makes sense. For someone who wasn’t raised in the church and was at a funeral with communion for the first time, how must it sound to hear “Take Eat, this is my body” …while staring at a casket with the body of your Aunt in it? Of course, the boy was torn, bewildered, scared.
And even for those of us familiar with the ways of communion and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist today, this whole Bread of Life thing gets kind of creepy doesn’t it?
Jesus says:  only those of us who will eat his body and drink his blood will have eternal life.
Of course, we use this imagery and almost exactly these words, each and every time we celebrate the Eucharist “This is my body, take eat, this is my blood, take, drink….”but somehow, because we’ve heard it for so long, because we haven’t thought about it that much, because we just excuse it as one of those “mysteries of faith,” we let those words roll of our back. But there’s something about how John words it in today’s Gospel that makes me understand how freaked out the temple authorities were then, and how freaked out that little boy was last week.
Back in Jesus’ day and in the early days of Xnty this concept of eating of Jesus’ Body and drinking of Jesus’ blood was downright scandalous. The creepiness, the discomfort with which many of us heard the words of today’s Gospel was magnified as they heard Jesus speak them…it smacked of cannibalism and cannibalism then, just as it is now, was taboo, forbidden. It was horrifying, disgusting, evil.
And yet, it is one of the foundations of our faith—to take to eat, to remember.
 How do we explain this—to those unfamiliar with our faith and, if we want to be honest, to ourselves.
how to understand it?
     Well, I didn’t have a good answer until I read some words written by Elizabeth Kaeton, an Episcopal Priest in Delaware who, while searching for inspiration as she prepared her third sermon in a row about the Bread of Life discourse, pulled out her Oxford Dictionary of the English language and looked up “bread.” By doing that she, and in turn I, discovered that the word we use to describe bread wasn’t always bread, and by understanding that, this whole thing   becomes a lot less creepy and lot more poignant and life giving. (many thanks to Elizabeth's weekly email of last week: Telling Secrets, I am the Bread of Life, August 12, 2018 received via email)

 Let me explain:
The substance we commonly refer to as bread was, before 1200 or so, called hlaf---loaf.
It was only around 1200 that the common usage switched from the old middle English word hlaf or loaf gave way to the Germanic based word, brud or bread.
Hlaf meant one whole thing ---- while brud, bread, meant a portion of, a piece of….
When I read this, it hit me---Jesus is talking to us about the interconnectedness of God’s creation, of the desperate need we have for each other and for God. And the desperate need God has us. Think about it---God so longed for us, so wanted to understand us that God became one of us, taking flesh and bone to to walk among us as Jesus. I suppose it’s easy to think of us as needing to be in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but how often do we consider how much God needs/wants/longs for us?
    This change in the word that we use for bread highlights that for me---when Jesus said he was the bread of life he most certainly wasn’t speaking English. And when John wrote about Jesus’ life he most certainly did not write it in English BUT when the Bible was translated into English ---in the 16th century—the word used was not Hlaf—the whole thing---but brud, bread, a piece of, a portion.
  I am the Bread of Life, says Jesus, only those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will be a part of me, a part of God.
My friends, we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We are part of something much bigger than our friends and our family, bigger than this parish and this diocese, bigger than this state or this country. We are part of God’s creation and God longs for us, aches for us to do our part within it, because if we don’t do our part, if we don’t partake of our portion than we, than us, than this creation, God’s creation is incomplete.
      I am the Bread of Life says Jesus, all who partake of me will have eternal life, all who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood will be a part of me and I will be a part of them.
Dear people of St Martin’s, we are hungry, the world is hungry, Jesus is hungry, God is hungry and you know what? We all hunger for the same thing---each other, together in peace and in love. Take and Eat: For Alone We are Nothing, But Together We Are Everything.
Amen.

Get Up! God has Plans. Proper 14B St Matthias

+Jane was finished. The pain too much, the efforts to relieve it too much, the hate she had for her very being, toooo much. So, she drove partway across the bridge and stopped. With a deep breath and a resolve she hadn’t been able to muster for years, she got out of the car, climbed over the guardrail and looked down, prepared to jump.

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

There was a hesitation—not really doubt, not even fear, Jane couldn’t explain it, but something caused her to pause and in that moment she heard Joe say “it’s not hopeless. Please don’t jump.” Suddenly, gentle giant of a man wrapped his mammoth arms around Jane and lifted her to safety. Jane says it was a Holy Spirit moment….Joe, the truck driver who saved her life, agrees. “I don’t know what came over me-- It had to have been a higher power. I did the rescuing, 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, woman!
That’s what the Holy Spirit was saying to Jane as she climbed over that guardrail.
Get up, man!
That’s what God was saying to Joe, the truck driver who prided himself on not getting involved but who got involved and pulled Jane from the edge.
Get up, prophet!
That’s what the messenger was saying to Elijah, “your work is not yet done.”
And yes, by the way, the road will be long, the journey tough, but GET UP, for I need you---yes YOU---to do this work and to do it now.
It’s a good message and it’s one we’d all be wise to heed.

Get up girl.  “I am the bread of life.”

Get up boy. Those who come to me, fully and completely, will never ever be thirsty.



 Get up woman. Follow Me.
 Get up…
What’s that, you’re too tired? You’ve tried everything and nothing works? Well, get up ---through me you’ll find your way. I need you… there’s work to be done.

Throughout this month of August we read what’s known as the Bread of Life Discourse. In these 50 + verses Jesus repeatedly tells us that he’s all the nourishment we need. That the strength we find sapped from our very being; that the hope we find elusive at best and utterly absent at worst isn’t gone, it hasn’t run out, it hasn’t been removed.
It’s still there.
It’s always there.

Jesus is telling us in John’s Gospel, Elijah is showing us in the reading from Kings that hope and strength aren’t things we create, or earn, or acquire. They’re gifts, given to us by and through the unending, outrageous, abundant love of God.

It can’t be said enough. God loves us beyond all measure.
But God’s love of us doesn’t mean that the road won’t be long, bumpy, scary and full of detours.
It will be. It is!

And that’s just what Jesus is trying to get across to us in these endless verses about being the Bread of Life.
Life isn’t easy. We’re faced with challenges all the time. Scary things.
Difficult things.
Heartbreaking things.
There are times when we want to give up.
There are times when we, just like Elijah, want to set ourselves down under a broom tree and fall asleep, hoping to never wake up.
There are those of us who, like Jane, have contemplated ending it all by our own hand.
There are those of us who’ve lost the ones we love because they became overwhelmed, heartbroken and at the end of their rope.
Life is most definitely NOT EASY.
But, as the Church in Iona says in their invitation to communion and as Jesus is telling us through the Bread of life verses and the messenger told Elijah and Bishop Katharine told us in the sermon:
“Come to this altar, we have a holy meal to share.
Come, those of you who have much faith and those who feel you have none.
Come, those of you who have tried to follow Jesus, but believe you’ve failed.
This is the feast of Jesus our Lord;
holy food for holy people.”
So get up folks….come and be fed, God has plans for us.+