CHRIST THE KING LAST PENTECOST 2022

 + Today is Christ the King Sunday, also known as the Reign of Christ. But just what do we mean by all this talk of Reign…and Kingship?…
It’s a day when we commemorate Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It’s a day when, as we close out the church year, we celebrate that our King, this King isn’t a king of royal palaces or of bejeweled crowns or of ermine robes. No today we remember that our king, this king died the death of a common criminal, that he was deserted by his friends and mocked by his captors.
 Today we remember that our King, the King of our hearts and minds and souls isn’t a King of the powerful but is the King of the weak. Today we’re reminded that our King isn’t the commander of a mighty army but is the Prince of all Peace. Today we remember that neither death nor life, not angels nor rulers, not present things nor future things, not powers nor principalities can determine our fate. Today we remember that Christ is our King, that Jesus is our Lord and that all of our power, all of our hope and all of our love is found in and through Him.
Today we celebrate that this faith of ours is as counter-cultural in the year 2022 as it was in the year 30.
I believe that many of us would be crucified today if Herod was our king,,,,
Today we celebrate the fact that for 2000 years we have left those in our wake scratching their heads and saying, “those Christians, are they nuts?’
Today we face the increasing intolerance of our world by saying, The Episcopal Church Welcomes You. Yes, You. And you, and you and you. The Episcopal Church welcomes the stranger, the refugee, the outcast, the hated, the different, the difficult and the destitute.
Today we face the ever-expanding hate of this world by saying, “we, as followers of Jesus Christ, love everyone.” Today we remind everyone in our world that although we may not like everyone all the time we do love everyone all of the time. Not because we necessarily want to, but because we must, because our Lord, our King, our Savior tells us that it is only by loving everyone that we ourselves can fully receive all the love God pours out upon us.
Today we face the never-ending uncertainty about our safety by saying that we, as people of deep faith, may not know what tomorrow holds, but that, as people of deep faith we know that all matter of things will be well because we are beloved children of God.
Today we remember that our King isn’t found on Pennsylvania Avenue or on Wall Street.
Today we remember that our King isn’t found in the money we make or the houses we build.
Today we remember that our King isn’t the winner of reality shows like the Voice, or Survivor or America’s Got Talent.
Today we remember that our King isn’t a Sabre or a Bill or even a Cub.
Today we remember that our King, this King, is too full of Love and Light, too full of Truth and Grace to be derailed by the darkness of this world.
Today we remember that our King, this King is the manifestation of God’s Love for us and that if we only remember who our King is, if we only remember what this King taught us---to love one another as we ourselves are loved---then this King, our King, the King, will reign not only in heaven but always and forever in our hearts.
For today, when we remember Him, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he will remember us.
Amen.

EASTER 2022

 My favorite Far Side comic depicts a figure looking an awful lot like Albert Einstein standing in front of a blackboard. Three headings sit atop three columns on the board, marked Step One, Step Two and Step Three. Under Steps 1 and 3 are numbers and mathematical symbols, suggesting some type of formula. Step 2 has no such numbers, no symbols, no formula. Instead it reads, “And then a miracle happens.”
Sometimes, even in science, we just don’t know how we get from Step One to Step Three, we just know that we do.
Such are the attempts to explain the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit….one is tempted to give all the theological explanations and then just say, well then a miracle happens: Step 1 We Believe in God. Step Three we believe in a Blessed and Undivided Trinity. Step 2, a miracle happens which makes three into one, and one into three.
Some things can’t be explained as much as they can be experienced.
    In our reading from the Book of Proverbs Wisdom is a “being”—-Lady Wisdom is a title often given to the star of much of the Book of Proverbs. In today’s reading we hear that Wisdom was with God at creation…and she was. It is this same “Lady Wisdom” who over the generations, morphed into the Holy Spirit of the New Testament, as we hear Jesus discuss in our reading from John (it’s also interesting how the ancient writings about Lady Wisdom were clear in the gender identity and how bt the time we got to the 3rd and 4th centuries Lady Wisdom had become a male Holy Spirit (but I digress). Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that he must return to his Father, with whom he has existed since the beginning of time.
Bottom line, our Christian doctrine is clear—-God comes to us in three persons—a creator, whom we generally refer to as God or as “Father,” a Redeemer whom we refer to as the Son, Jesus, and our Sustainer, Holy Wisdom or the Holy Spirit whose existence we commemorated last Sunday. We believe in a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in One God. One God who has three forms emanating from the same whole.
    Almost all expository attempts at describing the Trinity fall short because at its heart, the essence of the Trinity is relationship. And describing the essence of a relationship almost always fails.  God, in God’s three fold nature, is relationship.
    Retired Lutheran Pastor Richard Lischer shared this interpretation of the Trinity he discovered while contemplating a stained glass window depiction of the Trinity: “The fairly typical Trinitarian design of three interconnecting triangles reminded me of an aerial photograph taken of our small farming community.  Besides the straight and orderly rows of crops in the fields, another distinct pattern emerged: well-worn paths criss-crossing from one farmhouse to another. These paths, worn into the ground by generations of neighbors visiting and helping out in times of need, linked the town, they knit the community together.” Lischer’s description of the interconnectedness represented in those paths explains my experience of the Trinity.
God grooves paths in our lives, coming to us at different times and in different forms to address a variety of needs.
God, in three persons, Blessed Trinity, reaches out to us as a strong parental type when we feel small and childlike. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a forgiving friend in times of loneliness and confusion. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a sustaining force of inexplicable peace when we are bereft and lost, angry and bitter, hopeless and helpless. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity, longs to be a palpable presence in our lives, so God in God’s infinite wisdom, walks a number of paths to reach us.
Hopefully we are doing the same as we reach out to others. I envision a well-grooved path leading from our driveway to the Blessing Box where people, down on their luck walk up to the box and receive a true gift of the Holy Spirit—our love and our care. We groove a path from our driveway to the box and our neighbors groove another path from the box to their homes. The same is true of the Thrift Store—people make a path to donate, people make a path to receive. A relationship grooved not only in the sidewalk but in the hearts of those in need.

Step One: God Loves Us.
Step Three: God Wants to be With Us
Step Two: Through the miracle and mystery of God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity, God’s Love is always with us. Amen.

TRINITY SUNDAY 2022

 My favorite Far Side comic depicts a figure looking an awful lot like Albert Einstein standing in front of a blackboard. Three headings sit atop three columns on the board, marked Step One, Step Two and Step Three. Under Steps 1 and 3 are numbers and mathematical symbols, suggesting some type of formula. Step 2 has no such numbers, no symbols, no formula. Instead it reads, “And then a miracle happens.”
Sometimes, even in science, we just don’t know how we get from Step One to Step Three, we just know that we do.
Such are the attempts to explain the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit….one is tempted to give all the theological explanations and then just say, well then a miracle happens: Step 1 We Believe in God. Step Three we believe in a Blessed and Undivided Trinity. Step 2, a miracle happens which makes three into one, and one into three.
Some things can’t be explained as much as they can be experienced.
    In our reading from the Book of Proverbs Wisdom is a “being”—-Lady Wisdom is a title often given to the star of much of the Book of Proverbs. In today’s reading we hear that Wisdom was with God at creation…and she was. It is this same “Lady Wisdom” who over the generations, morphed into the Holy Spirit of the New Testament, as we hear Jesus discuss in our reading from John (it’s also interesting how the ancient writings about Lady Wisdom were clear in the gender identity and how bt the time we got to the 3rd and 4th centuries Lady Wisdom had become a male Holy Spirit (but I digress). Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that he must return to his Father, with whom he has existed since the beginning of time.
Bottom line, our Christian doctrine is clear—-God comes to us in three persons—a creator, whom we generally refer to as God or as “Father,” a Redeemer whom we refer to as the Son, Jesus, and our Sustainer, Holy Wisdom or the Holy Spirit whose existence we commemorated last Sunday. We believe in a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in One God. One God who has three forms emanating from the same whole.
    Almost all expository attempts at describing the Trinity fall short because at its heart, the essence of the Trinity is relationship. And describing the essence of a relationship almost always fails.  God, in God’s three fold nature, is relationship.
    Retired Lutheran Pastor Richard Lischer shared this interpretation of the Trinity he discovered while contemplating a stained glass window depiction of the Trinity: “The fairly typical Trinitarian design of three interconnecting triangles reminded me of an aerial photograph taken of our small farming community.  Besides the straight and orderly rows of crops in the fields, another distinct pattern emerged: well-worn paths criss-crossing from one farmhouse to another. These paths, worn into the ground by generations of neighbors visiting and helping out in times of need, linked the town, they knit the community together.” Lischer’s description of the interconnectedness represented in those paths explains my experience of the Trinity.
God grooves paths in our lives, coming to us at different times and in different forms to address a variety of needs.
God, in three persons, Blessed Trinity, reaches out to us as a strong parental type when we feel small and childlike. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a forgiving friend in times of loneliness and confusion. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a sustaining force of inexplicable peace when we are bereft and lost, angry and bitter, hopeless and helpless. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity, longs to be a palpable presence in our lives, so God in God’s infinite wisdom, walks a number of paths to reach us.
Hopefully we are doing the same as we reach out to others. I envision a well-grooved path leading from our driveway to the Blessing Box where people, down on their luck walk up to the box and receive a true gift of the Holy Spirit—our love and our care. We groove a path from our driveway to the box and our neighbors groove another path from the box to their homes. The same is true of the Thrift Store—people make a path to donate, people make a path to receive. A relationship grooved not only in the sidewalk but in the hearts of those in need.

Step One: God Loves Us.
Step Three: God Wants to be With Us
Step Two: Through the miracle and mystery of God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity, God’s Love is always with us. Amen.

PROPER 11C

 +My parents were great entertainers. Together they had terrific parties and elegant dinners, always opening our house to a variety of guests. But, there was a downside to all that entertaining. As the day of the party approached, Mom became increasingly stressed—the house had to be spotless, the food perfect, the table settings, exquisite. Mom became anxious, irritable, and distracted. A lot like Martha in today’s gospel.
    This is a familiar story and because of how it’s been interpreted over the years, many people struggle with it.
For some, their role behind the scenes at church: on Altar Guilds, property committees, kitchen crews, seems disregarded and belittled by Jesus. Others find the fact that these two women are pitted against each other, upsetting. Before we wipe our hands clean of this story---I mean perhaps preaching on God’s anger with the Israelites in Amos would have been a better choice---let’s consider what Luke’s trying to get across here. In these four verses, Luke shows us that there are a number of ways to serve God, and that how we serve God doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that we do serve God--- at all times and in all places.
Still, it does seem that Jesus is siding with Mary doesn’t it?
 That somehow Martha was insulting Jesus while Mary was honoring him.
    I don’t think Jesus meant to suggest that Mary’s way was the only way, nor was he suggesting that Martha’s way was the wrong way….I think he used that moment—when Martha’s anxiety had taken firm hold—as a teachable moment.
    This scene immediately follows what we heard last week—the parable of the Good Samaritan---a story in which Jesus implores his followers to be do-ers of the Word not just hear-ers. In that parable the inaction of the priest and the Levite—both bound by Jewish law to not go to the man’s aid— are criticized by Jesus, while the hospitality—the tangible action of the Samaritan— is honored. Last week, Jesus said, “Go and do like wise.” Be do-ers of the Word.
    But then this week Jesus appears to contradict himself, praising the seeming inaction of Mary who sits at his feet to receive his word, while condemning the action of Martha who’s offering the culturally expected  hospitality —Jesus praises the hearer of the word, while condemning the do-er. What’s up with that?
But neither Jesus nor Luke is being contradictory. Instead they’re using these two different stories to illuminate how a community of Christians need both do-ers and hear-ers. Both receivers and givers.
Mary and Martha are two halves of what is needed to make a household work: their household in Bethany and the household of God. They are two halves of what makes God’s Kingdom hum.
    There’s no problem with Mary hearing the Word and Martha doing the Word. BUT, there is a problem afflicting Martha, a problem familiar to my mom, a problem familiar to many of us as we navigate our lives:
 anxiety, worry and distraction. Through Martha’s effort to love her neighbor as herself, she’s become anxious and distracted.
While focusing on her tasks, she’s lost sight of the goal.
The tasks of hospitality have gotten in the way of being hospitable. When the details of hospitality, the serving of food, the setting of the table [the liturgies, music and preaching] become more important than the welcome and love of neighbor, then we’ve all missed the mark.
In today’s Gospel Jesus was saying to Martha,” what you’ve done is enough, thank you. Now stop and let us be in fellowship.”
    Martha and Mary isn’t an “either or” proposition,  it’s a “Yes and” proposition.
 To Love and Serve the Lord requires giving AND receiving. To love and serve the Lord requires both speaking and listening. Both busyness and stillness.
Hospitality isn’t the issue.
Discipleship isn’t the issue.
Attentiveness is.
Jesus is saying, do the work that’s necessary to offer hospitality, but don’t make the preparations take away from the dinner party.
Those parties my parents hosted were fun, we loved them. But the days leading up to those parties? Those were brutal.
Sometimes what we’re being called to do is to sit still and listen. Sometimes what we’re called to do is to stand up, get out and do. Our job is to be attentive enough to do what it is God needs done, not what we think needs to be done. Amen.

PROPER 28C

 Imagine this…you’ve been driven out of your home, far away from everything familiar. You’ve been taken captive by negative, angry, vengeful people who want nothing more than to have you wait on them hand and foot. How would you react? Rebel? Seethe? Accept? Dream of a better day?
In this morning’s readings from Isaiah —both our first reading and the canticle are readings the Prophet Isaiah wrote to the people of Israel, imprisoned in Babylon. Isaiah heard God promise to return the Israelites to their homeland, to free them from their oppressors returning them to the the land of milk and honey. Isaiah writes: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,the lion shall eat straw like the ox;”  In other words, the lion need not be feared the lamb will frolick with the wolf—no more danger,hate or fear. This dream is given to the captives and they hold onto it…it helps, it gets them through.
    But, this dream’s not reserved for only the ancient Israelites, it’s the same dream that drove our forebears to leave their homelands and come to America, to——as my ancestors did—-escape persecution for being protestant Irish.
It’s what our Irish, Italian, Russian, Polish, Greek and other ancestors did. it’s what the Ukranian family we’ve been assisting is doing as they fled their war-torn home to find a safe place of opportunity for their children, here.
It’s what, in recent years, Afghani, Iraqi, Burmese, Bantu, Syrian and countless others have done. It’s what Mexican, Cuban, Central American and South American families do today. It’s what’s colored humanity forever: when it is no good here, we travel there, hoping for a fresh start, a safe place, new opportunites.
This dream should unify us—-for we’ve all come from away. Most of our ancestors were fueled by this universal dream of things getting better, of the bad times not having the last word, of the good and the hopeful and the light prevailing because what we know is this: God loves us too much to have us suffer endlessly.
    And so we have Isaiah, painting a picture of a world that, as I so often say, refelcts the dream of God rather than the nightmare we’ve created. We can hold onto Isaiah…and we need to as we enter this pre-Advent and Advent time.
[OK…sidebar: back in the 8th century or so Advent was 6 weeks long, not four. Because of this our readings the couple of weeks before the First Sunday of Advent are full of apocalyptic (end times) imagery. Advent is a season of anticipating the coming of God in the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth—as the baby away in a manger and as the Risen one, who will return. In Advent we look forward to the first coming as we await the second.]
 So here we are, two weeks before Advent, hearing the soothing dream language of Isaiah promising that the strife of the current day will end and we’ll be returned to the land of peace, love and light. A place where all matter of things shall be well.
    So what does that do for us today? Well hopefully it reminds us that no matter how dark the night, no matter how long the struggle, no matter how terrifying the nightmare, horror never ever has the last word. We may be suffering now and in some way I know many of you here today are —worried, frightened, lonely——but it will not win, it will not last, it will no prevail. For in God there is only one promise: that God loves us more than we can ever love ourselves so no matter how deep the despair, no matter how painful the memory… no matter how terrifying the prognosis, God is here.
It’s how the Israelites survived their captivity, it’s how the enslaved people of 19th century America survived, it’s how our forebears survived and it’s how the Ukranian people and all who suffer for the sake of conscience across the globe survive each day:
in sure and certain hope that Isaiah’s dream is God’s reality, all we have to do is make it so.
Amen




 

PROPER 12C 2022

 

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

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

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

As if there is a wrong way to pray.

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

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

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

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

I understand the question. People assume that God’s like us. Like my mother--that God has a very distinct and proscribed way of doing things.

God doesn’t.

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

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

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

However that looks and however that sounds.

         Have you ever been in a period of profound pain and loss and fear? Have you ever had people intentionally and consistently pray for you during that time? Have you felt their prayers? 

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

And I’m here to tell you, it works. I’ve been sustained by and through the prayers of so many people… As a woman of faith I've certainly done my share of praying and intellectually I’ve known that research shows the effectiveness of prayer. But it wasn’t until I was the recipient of extensive, intensive, pointed prayer that I understood---deep in my bones, my heart and my soul---the power of prayer. Throughout the many losses I’ve experienced over the past five years I know that I’m still standing because of my prayer warriors.

The intercessory prayer of people, some I know, some I never will,  that’s what sustains me.

Prayer works. The prayer of others offers the recipient a spiritual undergirding that buoys them up enough to endure whatever it is they are enduring. Prayer brings peace to the hearts and souls of those who are prayed for. Our prayers are powerful. Our prayers have a clear and definite effect in this world. And it is our responsibility, our duty, but above all else [I hope] our honor to offer prayers for others. Always.  

So, my charge to you is to pray.

Sometimes that prayer may be HELP!!! Sometimes it might be, What the????? Sometimes it might be a deep and abiding thank you. Sometimes it might just be taking a couple of minutes—-or even a few seconds—- being quiet and acknowledging that God is with you. Whenever you do it, however you do it, pray each day—you will, I promise, notice a difference.

 

Amen.

 

LENT 2C

 

+  This morning I want to talk about fear and darkness. I mean it is Lent, right? In Genesis, after quite a long exchange with God, Abram falls asleep and enters a deep and terrifying darkness…but somehow this darkness transforms him, emboldens him. Changes him.

As a kid I was terrified of the dark. I thought I’d had it licked when, after I was widowed in 2017, I again found the darkness forbidding, so the phrase, a “deep and terrifying darkness” speaks to me. In those early days of widowhood, when I had to make a long and lonely walk out to the barn in the darkest days of the year, I was bound and determined to keep that darkness from overtaking me, to let the dark lead me to a new learning, because what I’ve found is that it always does. Darkness called me to courage—that is to feel the fear of it but to enter it and experience it anyway. Darkness, whether that of my own making, that of the world’s making (like what’s happening in Ukraine right now) or the darkness that is our faith, especially in Lent and Holy Week, is something to be entered rather than something to avoid.

         Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday—are very dark days. Holy Saturday in particular, fascinates me. I’m strangely drawn to the day when our faith is shrouded in total darkness. When we’re stuck in what can feel like an unbearable absence. Jesus’ body lies shrouded in the tomb…it’s a day of emptiness, a day of void.

I think this  important because by really feeling the absence the space needed   to fully embrace the new life of Easter morning is broken open. We must consider life without Jesus in order to embrace him every other day.

         My friends, our world is shrouded in darkness—we can refuse to watch the news because the images from Ukraine are so disturbing. I can refuse to ever mention world events in my sermons, afraid of offending someone. I can post something on social media about how awful things are in Ukraine and then go on with my day feeling that somehow I’ve done my part.

 We can avoid darkness, but we can’t deny it, for it is there, it is here. Darkness exists.

Trying to out-run darkness is why attendance is pretty low at things like Ash Wednesday and Holy Week liturgies.These services are uncomfortable and dark because they reveal to us the lesser part of our nature.

This is what Jesus is lamenting about in this morning’s gospel. He loves Jerusalem and yet he knows that Jerusalem will turn on him. That we will turn on him. And we do.

Because the truth is, I would have been in the crowd yelling crucify him. I wish that  wasn’t true, but I fear it is. And no doubt some of you would be with me.

Our fallen human nature is capable of great evil and deep hurt. But here’s the deal—if we admit this, enter the reality of our darkness, confronting what we are capable of, we can defeat it. The dark wins when we expend the energy to avoid it, the dark’s defeated when we confront it.  It’s what Jesus did in the garden, on the cross, and in his descent into death on Holy Saturday. He entered the darkness and came out the other side. The darkness did not overcome him.And it needn’t overcome us.

Just like Abram did in his dream and Jesus did on Holy Saturday only when we enter the darkness do we find it is beatable.

We can feel overwhelmed but the events in Ukraine, we can feel powerless, but as believers in the empty tomb, as followers of the light, we cannot avoid the horror of it, nor can deny that it is any of our business. When hate marches on, when darkness spreads like a cancer we, the people of God must not look away, instead we must look it dead in the eye and o whatever we can, however we can, for as long as we can to help.

 Be not afraid, dear people of God, the hold of darkness is not permanent. The lament of Jesus is not the last word.

Darkness will not win, if we, the people of light, refuse to give into it.

Let us pray for each of us, let us pray for the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, all refugees and all who are enshrouded in darkness. May our prayers and our actions, reveal the light that darkness cannot and will not overcome.

May God bless us as we endeavor to change this world.

Amen.