Lost and Found Proper 19 Yr C September 15, 2013

Episcopal priest and author Rick Morley says:
Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
Nobody. No one does this. No one would ever do that. It’s insanity. If you lose 1% of your holdings, you don’t risk the other 99% to get it back. By leaving the 99, you risk them roaming off, being stolen, or being killed and eaten by a wolf.
No one leaves the 99.
Or what woman upon losing a coin, lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches until she finds it? And then calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
Nobody. No one does this.

You don’t call friends and neighbors together for a celebration only to spend more money feeding and entertaining them. I mean why bother looking for the coin at all, if you’re just going to blow more money?
It’s insanity. Nobody does this.
Except Jesus.
Jesus does this. Jesus leaves the 99 to search for the lost. Jesus sweeps the house and then throws a party when the lost are found. It’s totally and thoroughly insane.
And it’s the Gospel message.
It’s the Good News of Christ that when a soul is lost, when we are lost, that soul, US, is missed, longed for, and not only worth the search party, but worth the celebration-party when the soul is brought back into the fold.

Our God is the God of the lost, the God who celebrates when the lost are found .
I've been lost lots of times....at one time or another we've all been lost---literally and figuratively.…we all, now and again, find ourselves tangled in the bramble unable to get free and desperately looking for rescue.
The good news is that rescue plan is already in place. On the first Christmas Day, the rescue plan was complete as God in the flesh was born: Jesus Christ. The moment Jesus began to walk this earth, the moment Jesus defeated death through his own death and resurrection, the rescue plan was activated.
I've said many times that God is constantly reaching out for us, moving toward us. The penultimate movement toward us happened with the birth of Jesus Christ. For, through Jesus we’re always, always rescued.
We’re never a hopeless case. We’re never lost forever, because God is always, ALWAYS looking for us.
Who goes searching for the one out of a hundred? Who goes searching for the one out of a thousand? Who goes searching for the one out of a trillion? Who goes searching for you and for me, no matter how far afield we have flown?
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Jesus the rabble rouser, Jesus the teller of obscure parables, stories that expose a truth we didn’t even know existed, that’s who searches for us, Jesus: the one who will always find us no matter what.
Today’s Gospel, and the whole 15th chapter of Luke is called the Lost and Found gospel  . I guess it could also be called the sin and forgiveness gospel.
Because in "Luke-speak" being lost is a metaphor for sin…and being found is a metaphor for forgiveness. But and this is important--- forgiveness isn't just something that happens to us...forgiveness is allowing ourselves to be found, it's accepting God's love for us.
When we sin—that is when we miss the mark and stray into the bramble, we need to stop, acknowledge the mess we're in and accept that God is looking for us, that God is reaching for us. All we have to do is accept this and trust this.
It’s the paradox of our lives: God doesn’t give up on us, we give up on us. God will never stop looking for us. We just stop wanting to be found.
We do the abandoning, the giving up and the turning away, not God.
Let me say this again: God never turns away from us and God is constantly reaching out to us, pursuing us, longing for us to return to the fold.
I know that some of you are thinking--"yes, but.... you don’t know how awful it is, you don’t know how far I’ve strayed, you don’t know how lost I truly am.” You’re right, I don’t know.
But I know how lost I’ve felt in my life, how far I’ve strayed and I know I KNOW that God never abandoned me. I know that I abandoned God.
Our churches would be filled to overflowing if people truly got this message, if people realized that God is like the most loving and forgiving person you have ever known or imagined, except more. God’s love for us and longing for us knows no boundary, it has no limits, it never ever ends. No matter what we do or who we are, when we lose our way, God is there to search us out, to find us, to heal us, to lead us home. (ibid)
If people GOT this message our pews would be packed, and our services raucous with praise and thanksgiving.
If only people knew.
People can know.
We can tell them.
We can show them.
You see, when we, as I mentioned last week, courageously bear our cross by speaking up for those without voice, when we stand up for those without standing, when we refuse to accept intolerance , when we do that, courageously and boldly, we’re showing people that even though we once were lost--Even though we’ll get lost again---God finds us, God will always find us.
It’s the insanity of our faith—no matter how far we fall, no matter how low we get, no matter how lost we feel, God will always catch us, lift us and find us. Always.
Thanks be to God. +

Holy Hatred and Courageously Bearing the Cross Sept 8 Proper 18c

“Whoever comes to me and does not HATE father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Holy Hatred Batman!
 “Holy hatred” is how one commentator characterized what Jesus is asking us to do in today’s Gospel.... i think it fits....it's a tough message to hear isn’t it? Especially when it’s the first day of our program year—Sunday School, the choir and folks we haven’t seen a lot of over the summer months are all back, our stewardship campaign is getting ready for kick off and in the luster of all this joy we have Jesus telling us to hate! Telling us, in no uncertain terms, that we must be willing to turn our backs on our family, friends and life as we know it–to hate all that we currently love, small l, in order to Love, capital L, God.
Now, what Jesus knew and what we tend to forget is that being a Christian really isn’t easy. To truly live out our baptismal covenant, to be followers of Christ, requires a lot more of us than just showing up on Sunday morning. We are charged, through our baptism, to stand up against the evils and the wrongs of this world---globally and locally, generally and personally, popular stances and not so popular stances. To be willing to disagree with those we love, to support unpopular causes, to go against the grain of mainstream culture---to hate the things that distract and detract from the pursuit of establishing the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Holy Hatred indeed!
Today’s readings share a certain theme—the cost of bearing the cross and the need to stand up against the forces of this world, against wrong, against evil. As it’s put in Deuteronomy, we have a choice, live a life centered around the eternal love of God, or live a life centered around the fleeting love of things temporal. The author is pretty vocal about what they consider to be the right choice….”choose [God] so that you and your descendants may LIVE…”
And then we have this quirky little letter of Paul to Philemon where Paul is actually—dare I say it?—compassionate in his encouragement of Phil and in his support and love of Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave. Paul is asking Philemon to welcome Onesimus back into his household, not as slave, but as a free man. Paul acknowledges that what he’s asking of Phil is costly.
Paul’s correct, living the life we proclaim in our creeds IS COSTLY.
My seminary's motto was Magnani miter Crucem Sustine: Courageously Bear the Cross. But just what does it mean… to courageously bear the cross... to really be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
Well it begins with this notion of Holy Hatred.
Holy Hatred is to resist, deny and ultimately defeat the evil that permeates our world.
And picking up your cross, or as my alma mater puts it, courageously bearing your cross, is doing just that.
It’s a process…Holy Hatred leads to courageously bearing the cross.



This is what Jesus is trying to get across to us.
It’s what Paul is asking Philemon to do.
Hate the evil of this world and through faith, name it, confront it and deny it.
It’s the Christian task here on earth. It’s what we’re marked and sealed to do at our baptism and beyond.
And just how do we do this? Well…
We courageously bear the cross when we struggle, really struggle with what to do about Syria.
We courageously bear the cross when, upon hearing of the murder of a 13 year old girl just blocks from where we are right now, we say to our mayor, our common council reps and our children that no life—no life---is disposable and that when a child is killed senselessly and brutally all of us—all of us-- are hurt down to our core.
We courageously bear the cross when, faced with the graft and corruption and “business as usual” in our local governments, be it Erie or Niagara County, Buffalo or Niagara Falls, that we stand up and say NO it isn’t business as usual because we deserve and demand to have a government that is truly and always by the people and for the people.
We courageously bear the cross when we say to our school boards that our children deserve to learn without the fear of common core test scores determining the success of their education.
We courageously bear the cross when we see the abuse of a spouse or a child or a senior and tell someone about it.
We courageously bear the cross when we reject the hateful rhetoric that fills our airwaves and our social media.
We courageously bear the cross when we say NO to those who would restrict who can marry whom and who can adopt whom and who can worship whom!
We courageously bear the cross when we sit down with the teens in our midst to say what Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke demonstrated was disrespectful  and demeaning and that it is never ever ok to objectify another person. Never. Ever.
We courageously bear the cross when we reach out to the stranger, the foreigner, the outcast.
We courageously bear the cross when we turn over the tables of the money changers, touch the untouchables and eat with notorious sinners.
We courageously bear the cross when we live as Jesus has taught us.
I think you get my point.
Holy Hatred is understanding that the way of THIS WORLD is often in conflict with the Way of God.
And Courageously Bearing the Cross is doing more than nodding our heads in ascent, or paying lip-service to the mantra, Dignity to all Forever. No Exceptions.
Courageously Bearing the Cross is walking out of here, forgiven, healed, renewed and strengthened to love our neighbor as our self and realizing that our neighborhood stretches from the corner of Jewett Pkwy and Summit Ave (Linwood Ave and North St) to Syria, Africa, China and all parts in between.
Holy Hatred Batman, I believe we have work to do!

Full access, No exceptions August 25th 2013 Proper 16 Yr C

On August 25, 2013 I was honored to be the preacher at the dedication service for the completion of the Reaching New Heights campaign at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Nativity, in Clarendon Hills, IL. Holy Nativity is the church in which I grew up. 
+Two events in 1979 were very important in the life of the Church of the Holy Nativity, events that have shaped this community for the past 34 years: The liturgical renewal and re-focus brought through the ratification of the 1979 BCP, which was monumental for all Episcopalians, and the birth of John Dempesy Reis which should have been monumental for all of Christendom but was especially meaningful to the Dempesy family!
Today these two events come full circle.
The prayer book revision may be a blip on the radar to some of you, to others it doesn’t even register, but for some of us, long time “cradle” Episcopalians of a certain age, the ratification of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer was a watershed moment. Moving from the 1928 Prayer Book to the 1979 Prayer Book was a change not only of language, but of theology. The theology of the ministry of the baptized. Now the focus of our faith is on how we, through the power given to us at our baptism, are the ministers of the church. It is up to us—all of us not just the ordained people set aside to do some of the nuts and bolts work of the church---to spread the Good News of Christ, to be the hands and feet, eyes, ears and mouth of God here on earth.
We are all called to walk in the footsteps of our Lord, refusing to rest until peace, equality, justice and dignity is available to all people everywhere, no exceptions. Nowhere in our liturgy is this more profoundly stated than in the Baptismal Covenant, recited on major feast days of the church year and at each and every baptism. You had a baptism last week so no doubt these words are still ringing in your ears:
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
Well today, with God’s help and a lot of perseverance and generosity you are respecting the dignity of every single human being, No Exceptions. Today you are continuing, here in this place, the healing Jesus undertook 2000 years ago in the temple, on the Sabbath Day. Today your work as agents of God on this earth, as foot soldiers of Christ, has reached its pinnacle. For today you are healing the hurts of years of exclusion and not quite full membership for anyone who is unable to climb steps. Today the focus of that renewed faith of 1979: NO EXCEPTIONS EVER has come to fruition.
On May 5, 1979 John Dempesy Reis was born. His wasn’t an easy birth and as a result he suffered a neurological injury that eventually took away his ability to walk or talk in the usual way.  As John grew, the inaccessibility of this place became profoundly evident: there wasn’t an elevator, there wasn’t a bathroom to accommodate his wheelchair so...John  was carried...down to Sunday School, up to the bathroom.
Imagine the indignity of it all…..
  Clearly, this building wasn’t matching up to the people’s vision of no exceptions.  But, even though you couldn't make the necessary changes to this building then, the people of CHN worked hard to include John in the full life of the church---he was a crucifer, he was a special category of acolyte (lavabo boy) he was front and center each and every Sunday, flashing that magnetic smile and offering his abundant hugs. But in spite of everyone’s efforts, John and everyone who used a walker or wheelchair was not able to fully participate in the life of this place. 99 % of the people at CHN entered through a different door than those who cannot climb steps. And the undercroft, the downstairs, has been off limits to John and others for years.
Today, finally, the brick and mortar of this place has caught up to its spirit. Today the dignity of every human being—no exceptions—is a reality at CHN. John, along with Christine Massie and Kathryn Brackett and anyone else who can’t stand up straight on their own, have, in their hearts, been healed.
Our Baptismal Covenant serves as the marching papers we all need to be Christ in this world, to fully and truly love your neighbor as yourself.
This project has made your promise to respect the dignity of every human being a hard and fast reality.
Because of this project John, Christine, Kathryn and all people who cannot stand and walk straight are able to enter this place with dignity and inclusion.
Because of this project you have taken on the mantel of the prophet Jeremiah, accepting God’s work through you in this place and beyond. For YOU, the Church of the Holy Nativity said, “who we are is not represented in different entrances for different people,” so you took a long, hard, deep and honest look at who you were and who you wanted to be and then set about to be who it was you envisioned.
With this project you have spoken loud and clear that everyone—NO EXCEPTIONS—is welcome in this place and that everyone --NO EXCEPTIONS-- has a voice and a vision to share.
Today as you cut the ribbon on the Reaching New Heights campaign you, along with Jesus, say, "the only way we can reach new heights is if everyone, NO EXCEPTIONS, is allowed equal and full access to all we do here at the corner of 55th Street and Richmond in Clarendon Hills Illinois."
For some of you this project may not have had that much to do with universal access, it may have been more about updating the bathrooms, expanding the kitchen and embellishing what has already been done to create a more user friendly space. For some of you all this stuff about full and complete access may not resonate as it does for my family. But today, in the sight of God, with a great cloud of witnesses including Ralph Brown, Ellouise Ford, Alan and Jean Sims, Ruthanne and Bob Mason, Jean Ellison, Nancy Handke and John’s grandpa, George, cheering you on, you, through this project, have provided full and free access to the Holy for all who desire it. No exceptions.
And for that I say, Thank you and Amen.

Proper 14 Yr C The Missing Piece Aug 11, 2013

Today we baptize Eyob Jack Marshall [at the 10:30]. Who doesn’t love a baptism? Especially the baptism of a 7 year old, new to this community but who, along with his mother Kelly, is quickly becoming a shining light among us.
Baptisms are GREAT DAYS.
Last month I began the practice of writing a letter to the about to be baptized as my sermon for that day. Today, with the permission of Eyob’s mama, Kelly, I share with you the details of how they became a family through a letter to Eyob from God.
My dear Eyob,
What a wonderful day this is—with the prayers of this community, the promises of your mama, your sponsors and this congregation, with a little splash of water and the sign of the cross in chrism, you are being marked, sealed as one of my beloved. Forever. No matter what..
Of course you’ve always been beloved. Today is just a ceremony to acknowledge what has been true since the moment of your birth: you are loved, forever and always.
It’s interesting how families come together. Throughout your life you may hear people talk about what a family “should” look like, how a family “should” be constructed. Pay that no heed my child. “People” don’t make a family, LOVE does. Look around your school, your neighborhood, this church, your mama’s friends…. you’ll see families made up of all sorts of people…a wide array —people of no color and people of some color, people who were born into the family and people who were brought into the family through adoption, two parents, one parent, same gender parents and different gendered parents, grandparents raising grandbabies, aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends all taking a turn at being the safe and steady adult all children deserve and need.
If anyone ever tells you that you don’t belong someplace remind them that we are all, as was just read from the book of Genesis, children of Abraham. I wasn’t kidding when I told Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than all the stars in the sky. Later on tonight, when it gets nice and dark, look up to the sky. All those stars? They represent all the brothers and sisters in God you now have.
It’s a whole lot, Eyob!!!
From today and forever, you will never ever be alone.
Jesus, (you’re getting to know him, I think you’ll really like him) said in that reading from Luke,
 “where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”
5 years ago you and mama found your treasure—each other!
It was September 18, 2008, Mama and her friend Joyce traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mama was one of nine families there that week. Families all looking for their missing piece. Mama saw you right away---you were so sweet and so so tiny, weighing only 20 lbs at age 2 ½ and she knew she had found her missing piece. Mama pulled that orange car out of her backpack and the two of you began to play.  As the car rolled back and forth between you, I anointed you as a family--for you had found your treasure in each other.  Your hearts were full to overflowing and a family was born. As your mama said you were mama and Eyob as if you had always been. Here’s a secret….you always were---sometimes it just takes a while for people to find their true treasure…but when they do, they always know it. Just like you and Mama.
The thing about love—the big type of love that is Me---that type of Love comes in all shapes and sizes and is expressed in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it’s expressed by saying good-bye.  I know how brave and loving your birth mother was to do the hardest thing she ever had to do so that you and mama could receive the greatest gift ever. Today we honor and thank your birth mother for her kindness, her courage and her faith---in me, in you and in Mama. Today Mama is fulfilling a promise she made to your birth mother in having you baptized. She had never been baptized, but had always wanted to be. Today as the waters of baptism flow over you, please know that the waters of baptism are also flowing over her.
After your birth mother and mama talked there was a ceremony of candles. The birth families lit a candle and then the adoptive families lit their candles from the flame of the birth family candles, symbolizing the passing of the responsibility to love and care for the child forever to the adoptive parent.
 Today there is a great big candle lit in the church, do you see it? That flame is the flame of Love. It is the flame of Me. That flame tells you that no matter where you go, matter how happy you are or sad you feel, no matter what , I will always be with you…for wherever you are? Wherever you are, there will be MY treasure, a treasure of that Love which passes all understanding, the love of a mother for a child, the love of a mama for her Eyob, the love of Me for my Son and the love of everyone gathered here today for one another.
As you are washed with the waters of baptism, Eyob, remember that you are Loved beyond all measure. Always and Forever.
Amen.

Distracted by Want Aug 4, 2013 Proper 13 Yr C

   When I was working with cocaine-exposed children and their mothers, we had to keep a very tight reign on the number of toys in the children's playroom. Too many fun shiny toys would completely overwhelm the children, leading to a quick meltdown. I think the theory holds true for all children, but especially for these cocaine-exposed kids, too much "stuff" overwhelmed them and led them to distraction.

I often feel that way about life. Life is full of stuff.. Stuff that needs our attention. Stuff that distracts, consumes and at times, overwhelms us.

It seems the more complicated our lives become, the less connection we have with God.

Riches on earth pull us away, distract us from riches in heaven.

The riches, the STUFF of life pulls so many of us into the rat race of the here and the now that we forget the forever and the eternal. Riches in this life often make us forget our richness in God.

This Gospel is about being rich toward self vs being rich toward God.

How rich are you toward God?

Okay time for a couple of disclaimers.

First, Having stuff, being wealthy, is not a bad thing. Second, we're all wealthy. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and to the rest of the world we all, even the poorest among us, are wealthy. So even though it's tempting to, while listening to the parable of the rich fool, as this story is known, to say “well if I was rich I wouldn't behave that way...” we can't say that  because we are rich.

But lots of us don’t feel rich. Many of us feel poor. Which, actually, is at the heart of this Gospel. The man in the parable wants to relax to eat drink and be merry. And he’ll do that just as soon as he builds enough barns. But there’s the rub, he’ll never have enough barns. Because he’ll never feel like he has enough…because he isn’t filling his barn with God, he’s filling his barn with self. He isn’t filling his barn with hope, he’s filling his barn with fear. He isn’t filling his barn with true abundance, he’s filling his barn with a terror of scarcity.

The having of stuff isn't the problem according to Jesus, the distraction it causes, is.

In the gospel the man who wants Jesus to tell his brother to be fair with the family inheritance has just lost his father. Inheritances only come into play when someone has died and in this case this man, and his brother, have lost their father. But does he come to Jesus seeking  solace? No he comes to Jesus seeking righteous justification. He comes to Jesus to make sure he gets what's his. He comes to Jesus about stuff. About external, material things. He comes to Jesus distracted by “want.”

He’s not looking to fill a spiritual emptiness, he’s looking to fill his barn.

Having stuff isn't bad. Wanting stuff isn’t bad. Getting distracted by the stuff , being derailed by the want is.

Being rich in cash and goods isn't bad, letting cash and goods block our connection to God, is.

Being rich isn't bad, being poor toward God is.

Are we rich toward God or are we poor toward God?

I feel rich when I find myself in silence. No dogs barking, no phone ringing, no email dinging, no sirens, no honking horns.

I feel rich toward God when Pete and I clean the barn and mow the grass up at the ranch.

I feel rich toward God when I put everything else aside and stand behind that altar, celebrating the Eucharist

I feel rich toward God when I deliver books or school supplies to School 54…or share a laugh with some of the kids from St Mary’s School for the deaf…

I feel rich toward God when I pack bags in the [pet] food pantry

I feel poor toward God when I forget that this is God’s world, not ours.

I feel poor toward God when I forget that God’s in charge, not me.

I feel poor toward God when all that stuff that makes me feel rich toward God gets put on the back burner.

This parable isn’t about the evils of having too much. It’s about being driven to distraction as we keep up with all the “stuff” filling our playrooms, our barns, our hearts and souls. It’s about distraction, its’ about all the stuff that keeps us from noticing the love of God and offering love of neighbor.

This whole section of Luke’s Gospel—what we’ve been reading this summer, is about what God wants us to value. It’s written to teach us that what matters to God and what should matter to us is that we bring all that we are and all that we to this altar---where we are fed the bread of life and we drink from the cup of salvation, for when we do that, when we stop worrying about stuff and start trusting in God, our barns will be full of something more valuable than stuff and more rewarding than want, our barns, our playrooms,  our hearts and our souls will be filled with the abundant richness that is God. Amen.

    When I was working with cocaine-exposed children and their mothers, we had to keep a very tight reign on the number of toys in the children's playroom. Too many fun shiny toys would completely overwhelm the children, leading to a quick meltdown. I think the theory holds true for all children, but especially for these cocaine-exposed kids, too much "stuff" overwhelmed them and led them to distraction. 

I often feel that way about life. Life is full of stuff.. Stuff that needs our attention. Stuff that distracts, consumes and at times, overwhelms us. 

It seems the more complicated our lives become, the less connection we have with God. 

Riches on earth pull us away, distract us from riches in heaven.

The riches, the STUFF of life pulls so many of us into the rat race of the here and the now that we forget the forever and the eternal. Riches in this life often make us forget our richness in God. 

This Gospel is about being rich toward self vs being rich toward God.

How rich are you toward God?

Okay time for a couple of disclaimers.

First, Having stuff, being wealthy, is not a bad thing. Second, we're all wealthy. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and to the rest of the world we all, even the poorest among us, are wealthy. So even though it's tempting to, while listening to the parable of the rich fool, as this story is known, to say “well if I was rich I wouldn't behave that way...” we can't say that  because we are rich.

But lots of us don’t feel rich. Many of us feel poor. Which, actually, is at the heart of this Gospel. The man in the parable wants to relax to eat drink and be merry. And he’ll do that just as soon as he builds enough barns. But there’s the rub, he’ll never have enough barns. Because he’ll never feel like he has enough…because he isn’t filling his barn with God, he’s filling his barn with self. He isn’t filling his barn with hope, he’s filling his barn with fear. He isn’t filling his barn with true abundance, he’s filling his barn with a terror of scarcity.

The having of stuff isn't the problem according to Jesus, the distraction it causes, is. 

In the gospel the man who wants Jesus to tell his brother to be fair with the family inheritance has just lost his father. Inheritances only come into play when someone has died and in this case this man, and his brother, have lost their father. But does he come to Jesus seeking  solace? No he comes to Jesus seeking righteous justification. He comes to Jesus to make sure he gets what's his. He comes to Jesus about stuff. About external, material things. He comes to Jesus distracted by “want.”

He’s not looking to fill a spiritual emptiness, he’s looking to fill his barn. 

Having stuff isn't bad. Wanting stuff isn’t bad. Getting distracted by the stuff , being derailed by the want is.

Being rich in cash and goods isn't bad, letting cash and goods block our connection to God, is. 

Being rich isn't bad, being poor toward God is.

Are we rich toward God or are we poor toward God?

I feel rich when I find myself in silence. No dogs barking, no phone ringing, no email dinging, no sirens, no honking horns.

I feel rich toward God when Pete and I clean the barn and mow the grass up at the ranch. 

I feel rich toward God when I put everything else aside and stand behind that altar, celebrating the Eucharist

I feel rich toward God when I deliver books or school supplies to School 54…or share a laugh with some of the kids from St Mary’s School for the deaf…

I feel rich toward God when I pack bags in the [pet] food pantry 

I feel poor toward God when I forget that this is God’s world, not ours. 

I feel poor toward God when I forget that God’s in charge, not me. 

I feel poor toward God when all that stuff that makes me feel rich toward God gets put on the back burner. 

This parable isn’t about the evils of having too much. It’s about being driven to distraction as we keep up with all the “stuff” filling our playrooms, our barns, our hearts and souls. It’s about distraction, its’ about all the stuff that keeps us from noticing the love of God and offering love of neighbor. 

This whole section of Luke’s Gospel—what we’ve been reading this summer, is about what God wants us to value. It’s written to teach us that what matters to God and what should matter to us is that we bring all that we are and all that we to this altar---where we are fed the bread of life and we drink from the cup of salvation, for when we do that, when we stop worrying about stuff and start trusting in God, our barns will be full of something more valuable than stuff and more rewarding than want, our barns, our playrooms,  our hearts and our souls will be filled with the abundant richness that is God. Amen. 

Going off script with God July 28, 2013 Proper 12

I remember, soon after I was ordained, my mother asking me to offer grace before a family dinner. I was in town because a very close family friend was seriously ill and none of us thought he would live through the night. So I commenced to offer a  standard food blessing, with a petition for Richard tacked onto the end. My mother, being a fairly rigid person said "Amen," as soon as I ended the familiar "grace" portion of the prayer... She was used to a specific formula for saying grace and darn it how dare I mess with it! My mom was astounded that I would " go off script" while praying.
The disciples ask Jesus: teach us how to pray. John the Baptist did for his followers, do it for us, give us the formula write us a script.
Everyone wants the inside track on the right way, the fool proof correct way to pray.
As if there is a wrong way to pray.
This is Jesus' point at the end of today's Gospel--- knock---Whatever you do knock! That is, PRAY, people. Whatever, however, wherever, whenever....God wants to engage us in a conversation. God wants to hear from us.
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 is the magic formula...the exact right way to pray?
I understand the question. People assume that God is like us. Like my mother--That God has a very distinct and proscribed way of doing things. That God is of the "my way or the highway" club.
God isn't.
However, because the disciples are an earnest bunch, Jesus offers them a formula for prayer. An outline of what a prayer could --NOT SHOULD-- look and sound like. Enter, 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.
I always tell people who are just beginning the ordination process tat when doing nursing home visitations to always always use the Lord's Prayer because when ministering to Alzheimer's patients it's amazing that, long after the faces of loved ones disappear into that unidentified line of strangers, they can still recite the Lord's Prayer. Word for word.
So while it is not the talisman of our faith, it is iconic.
But 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.
However that looks and however that sounds.
Author and Christian seeker Anne Lamott says that all prayer falls into three categories:
Thanks
Help
Wow.
THANKS
 thanks for giving me life
Thanks for giving me love.
Thanks for healing my hurts , my illness, my loss, my sadness
Thanks for getting me through that sticky wicket.
THANKS. Thanks thanks


HELP
Help me I'm lost
Help me I'm scared
Help me I'm hurt
Help me I'm over whelmed
Help me
Help me
Help me
WOW
wow what An amazing sunset
Wow what an incredible baby
Wow that's some kind of Love
Wow this is some kind of life
Wow. You amaze me God--you totally and completely amaze me.
WOW WOW WOW.
I tend to agree with Annie. This is all God needs.
The basics.
Thanks….Help…..Wow
You know that verbal shorthand you can do with your best friend? Your spouse? Your sibling? How what you really mean, what you really need doesn't need to be spelled on in 12 pt font, double spaced with complete sentences and clearly defined paragraphs?
That's what God wants to have with us. A close and loving relationship that at times, needs few if any, words.
This is the point of that odd little parable in the middle of today's Gospel about the noisy neighbor and the grouchy homeowner. Many people mistakenly assume that God is the grouchy homeowner,  that we must whine and cajole to get God's attention. No what Jesus is telling us is that if one, out of a sense of cultural duty or just plain fatigue , responds to the pleas of another how much more will God respond to us, for God doesn't respond out of a sense of duty or expectation, God responds out of LOVE.
Embrace that Love
engage that Love.
Reciprocate with love of your own and enter into a conversation with God
Ask and receive
Search and you will find
Knock and the door will be opened
Go off script, blaze your own path and in your own words and through your own heart find a way to tell God thanks, to ask God for Help and to offer God Wow. Amen.

The Traveler July 14 2013

+At 10:52 pm on Monday February 18 I received the following email from Jesse’s great grandmother Laurel:
Dear Cathy, Jesse Stephen  was born at 9:22 P.M.   8 pds.  9 oz.   21 in.   Mother & baby doing fine. [signed]  Very Happy great grandmother better known as Gigi.
I cherish that email. First because Nancy and I used to share stories of our mothers and their repeated befuddlement with email. We both marveled that even amidst their frustration, our mothers still persevered in communicating over the information superhighway. Secondly, I cherish it because not even two weeks later, Laurel was gone.
Now, if Laurel were still alive, she’d be sitting right over there, beaming with utter joy at this blessed event. Of course even though they aren’t physically here, we know that both Laurel and Ralph are smiling down on us as we baptized another Cammarata (fourth generation!) into this fold.
When I pulled up Laurel’s birth announcement email earlier this week, I began to wonder what kind of email Laurel would send Jesse today, if the information superhighway reached heaven.

Dear Jesse,
Gigi here. You are such a handsome little boy. I wish I could be there to hold you, but know that my spirit is with you today, as it will be forever.
I looked up the Gospel reading for this Sunday and was pleased to find it was the story of the Good Samaritan—it’s a story you’ll hear again and again as you grow-up.
We all strive to be the Good Samaritan and I certainly expect—and hope and pray—that more often than not you’ll be just that: a Good Samaritan. But the truth is this story isn’t so much about being the Samaritan as it is about accepting that throughout life, at different times, you’ll be each of these characters.
When you’ve grown up there’ll be times when you get so busy that you’ll pass by folks in need, you’ll put off visiting your aging parents, you may even miss your own daughter’s soccer game. In other words, there will be times you are the Priest from this story. Respected as a community leader, yet too absorbed in your tasks to remember your responsibilities as a Christian.  It’s not bad, it’s just a fact of life. We get busy, we get distracted and we forget.
There will also be times, as you grow and become an adult, a husband and a father, that you will be the Levite…that you’ll sense needs in your community but fear will keep you from getting involved. After all, stepping into another’s issues, another’s needs, another’s troubles can be messy, unpredictable and downright scary.
It happens. Trust me, Jesse…there will be times you’re too distracted or too scared to be a Good Samaritan.
And there will be other times..many times I hope…that you’ll be the Good Samaritan. That you’ll see your neighbor, you’ll feel compassion and you’ll get involved and do mercy; you’ll reach out, loving your neighbor, as you too have been loved.
As you too have been loved.
You see, more than being the Priest, more than being the Levite, more even than being the Good Samaritan, the most important character in this story is the Traveler. The one robbed and beaten and left half dead along the side of the road.
Jesse, there will be lots of times that you’ll need help, that you’ll feel lonely. Or scared. Or hurt. It’s part of life. We need each other. That’s the point of the story---we all need each other. We are each other’s neighbor, we are each other’s keeper, we are each other’s Good Samaritan.
When you get baptized in a few moments everyone here will say: We receive you into the household of God.
The household. This is the lesson of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the lesson of being baptized into a community of faith—we’re in this together. Today everyone here is pledging to care for you, to support you, to love you, to cry with you, to laugh with you. Everyone in attendance will watch you grow and be ready to step in whenever and wherever and however you may need help. It’s one the greatest things about being a member of a church, and one of the things I love about Good Shepherd. But today isn’t just about Jesse and the Church of the Good Shepherd. Today is about the household of God where everyone is our neighbor. We must look out for everyone—not just here in Parkside, not just in your neighborhood in Snyder, not just in western new york…not just your friends and family.
Everyone. Everywhere is your neighbor. So yes, this means when they need help you need to help them but, and this is the point so many of us forget: everyone, everywhere is there for you too. Because no matter how much we hope and pray you’ll always be the Good Samaritan, there will be times when you’re the traveler and you’ll be in need, you’ll be in trouble, you’ll be afraid. And when that happens, because you are a member of the household of God—a vast and all encompassing community of Love---there will be a Good Samaritan reaching out to you. A Good Samaritan who will help you in thought, word and deed.
For that’s what we do in this household of God. We help each other, no exceptions.
That’s the wonder of baptism, Jesse, and it’s the wonder of God’s Love given to us in Jesus Christ and experienced through all those who love you: from this day and forevermore: you are never ever alone. And for that I am very grateful.
Love,
Gigi.
Amen.