Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, January 7, 2007

Who or what is God to you? When you think of God what are the images that come to your mind? These are important questions for us to consider. The portrait we carry of God in our own mind will affect how we see God and how we see God at work in the world and in our lives.

Some of the lessons today speak of God’s revelation of self to others. Perhaps the revelations were exactly what the people expected. Perhaps they were much different from what was expected. As I pondered this idea of God’s self revelation I though about the different way that I or others have viewed God.

Some see God as a sort of cosmic and all powerful Santa Clause. We ask for good things and if we have been nice we can expect to receive. However is we have been naughty we can anticipate the proverbial lump of coal.

Others may see God as a 911 responder to emergencies. The kind of God you make supplication to once in a blue moon. Perhaps when things are so desperate that I have to give up thinking I can handle it myself and toss up a “hail Mary” prayer hoping against hope that since I haven’t prayed to God in so long a while that I will be remembered and saved from whatever horrible circumstances I find myself in.

Others may see God as that benign grandfather. Some what similar to the Santa Clause God, but a little more active and involved in our lives. Giving us all good things, perhaps whether we deserve them or not.

Perhaps some see God as an all powerful and all knowing scorekeeper. A God who keeps track of how well or how poorly we are doing in our life. In the end it is all up to us, but God is constantly looking over our shoulders keep the score.

And of course there is always the option of God as the stern disciplinarian. God standing over us with a long list of rules and regulations which we are expected to keep and if we don’t, we can count on getting our just rewards.

As we look to our lessons for today we will not see any of those images fortunately. Today have heard of God’s self revelation. We will no longer be dealing with the imaginations of ideas of women and men about how God is. Just yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany if the feats of the Church which celebrates the revelation of the son of God to the Gentiles in the persons of the magi. But this is a strange revelation. The magi come in search of a king. My guess is that they were looking for a palace, some finely appareled parents and a baby in a setting fit for a king. Instead at the end of their journey they find a baby in poverty. Perhaps the human response might have been to turn away. Certainly the star must be wrong. This baby can’t be the right one. But they accept what God has revealed to them. In spite of their preconceived notions they offer the gifts they have brought for this king.

In the prophet Isaiah today we hear God revealing himself to his people again. God reveals himself as the one who created them, the one who ransomed them, and the one who will be with them. After grieving over the failure of the chosen people to remain faithful to God in chapter 42 God still reaches out to them in love. Here we find not a scorekeeper God, not a Santa, grandfather or any of the other notions one might have of God. Instead we see a God of patience, love, and compassion.

What a comfort it is to know that we still follow a God who unfailingly reaches out to us. No matter our faults, our fears, or our failures, God reaches out to us. The same God who again and again sought out his chosen people Israel will again and again seek us out. God does not count the number of times he has been rejected, but steadily continues to call us out by name. “When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you.”[1] Those are the words of God to a people he is trying to call back to himself. These are the same words God speaks to us when we fail.

The story of the baptism of Jesus in Luke also reveals more of God to us. I think the most important revelation in this story for me is the revelation and reminder that God is a God of relationships. God refers to Jesus as his beloved. This term speaks of a richness of depth that is incomprehensible to me. God could have just announced Jesus as his son or as the messiah, either announcement would have gotten the job done. But God announces Jesus as his beloved son.

This is something we share with Jesus. As children of God through Jesus we likewise are beloved children of God. Having faith and confidence in this truth, we need to do away with revelations of God in our own minds that are inconsistent with this view of sharing in the heritage of a beloved child of God. Those false views of God will only encumber us in our walk with Jesus. They will hold us back and not allow us to enjoy the truth of our relationship with the creator of the universe. That same God who created all in his spoken word speaks to us today and calls us beloved children of God.

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[1] Is. 43:2 (NLT)

Sermon for Christmas Eve, December 24, 2006

Peace on earth, good will to all. That is the message of Christmas and as we celebrate the birth of a baby who would become the savior of the world, I wanted to reflect on a Christmas Carol.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Peace on earth, good will to men. That is the message of Christmas. Some of you may recognize the words of this Christmas Carol even though it is absent from our Hymnal. It was written by a man during the holidays several years after the tragic death of his wife. He was still dealing with his feelings of loss and wrote these words to try and help himself heal during the holidays. It was his attempt to try and recover the feelings of the holidays he was so used to experiencing with his wife.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I can almost feel in my own being that the writer has truly begun to capture the spirit of the Christmas message. The message of peace and good will is a difficult one to reject. You feel this spirit building in each stanza. There can be no doubt that God has done an amazing miracle in the incarnation and that God continues to do amazing things in the world around us. Who would have expected peace on earth and good will to all from a child in a manger.

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

These two stanzas may be unfamiliar. They are not found in most songbooks. They are a reference to the Civil War. The author wrote this carol during that conflict but because these two verses clearly don’t play well with the Christmas message they are usually left out. However I think it important that we face them. Then as now we are faced with the terrible reality that humanity has a way with ruining that which God created. We are willing to attack and kill those made in the very image of the creator. It is hard to share the message of peace on earth, good will to all in the face of this reality. How easy it is for the sound of battle, strife, and hate to drown out the message of the Christ child. Christians of good heart and intention are working all over in the world to try and alleviate suffering, starvation and death. And yet what do we hear on the new. Only the sounds of battle. The work of God in the world is drowned out. The next stanza (which is familiar to us and perhaps even better understood in the context of the preceding verses) is:

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

These are strong and powerful sentiments. As Christians they are probably feelings we all can share. When we look out on the world and see so much hatred amongst people and so much apathy to the plight of the poor and the oppressed how can we feel any way other than that the message of peace on earth, good will to all is mocked by the world today. I say an item in the news tonight about a “Christian” game called “Left Behind”. In the game, you can get points for killing those who do not come to faith. What sort of message is that to send, The world is in bad enough shape without the image of Christians gaining points for killing people.

But our song ends in triumph and not defeat:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

The message of Christmas is that God is not dead. The same Jesus who appeared in the manger as a child, who lived his life on earth and finally laid his life down on the cross is not dead. God is alive and well in the world today. We know that in the end wrong shall indeed fail and right will prevail and the message of peace on earth, good will to all will come true.

God calls on each and every one of us to do our part. God calls on us to work for the kingdom today. No matter how bleak the future looks, no matter how impossible the task seems, God calls for us to speak out, to take our place in the world today working to make this world a world where the message of peace on earth, good will to all can seem like a possibility.

As we celebrate the birth of a savior in a lowly manger and as we look forward to the new year to come, let us not give up hope. When people ask me why God allows this or that evil in the world today, my response is why do we? What evil in the world can you work on making right. Go out and do you part to bring peace on earth and good will to all.

Sermon for the Last Sunday after Pentecost, November 26, 2006

This is the last Sunday before Advent and is also known as Christ the King Sunday. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus with four weeks of preparation, perhaps it is fitting that we have a celebration of the Jesus as Christ the King before we begin.

Jesus has many titles by which we know him. Christ the King, savior, redeemer, King of the Jews. But in the lesson today Jesus reminds us today that his kingdom is not from this world. The word kingdom comes from the Greek word basileia. It is a word that is generally translated as kingdom in most English translations but also could be translated as realm or as process.

We celebrate Christ the King Sunday in the midst, once again, of apocalyptic writings. And again we are faced with our choice of responses. We can choose to respond in fear or in hope. We could decide that all was lost and not worth saving, but once again we would be missing the truth of God. In the midst of this possible fearful response we have the promise of Christ the King. The words of Hymn 544 remind us that “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun doth his successive journeys run; his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.” This idea that God will triumph is very comforting, particularly when we face tough circumstances.

This brings us back to that idea of the basileia of God. One of the reasons that I like the term the process of God better is that the word kingdom carries too much baggage for us. It puts in my mind the idea of a peaceful place where God is in control and we have nothing to worry about. We can just lay back and take it easy.

But if we look at what is before us as the process of God then it is a much different thing. It is not a destination to which we breathlessly arrive ready for a long and well deserved rest. It is not some perfect place just around the corner that we just have to wait for it to show up. Instead, it is now something on going. Something God is working to make happen. And hopefully something that we are working with God to make it happen. Being a Christian is not about sitting around on a couch waiting for God to deliver the goods. It is about taking seriously our responsibilities to work with God in this process of the basileia of God.

What does this basileia of God look like? It is people trying to solve the world problems of hunger. It is people working towards the millennium development goals to work on this world wide problem and it is people bring bags of food for our food bank to work on this local problem. It is people who don’t say, there is too much wrong in the world, nothing can be done. When you look at the millions of children dying every year and the wars and famines all over the world it can seem hopeless. But God still wants each one of us to do what we can. No one though much would come of a small child born in Bethlehem. I’m sure no one thought much of Sr. Teresa. But the Christ child transformed the world. Sr. Teresa has touched millions of lives making them better.

It is people who role up their sleeves and say, “what can I do, where can I help.” It is people visiting those in prison. It is people offering to sit next to a visitor and help them with our service. It is standing up for people for things that don’t even affect you because it is the right thing to do. It is writing your senators, congress persons, and other elected officials expressing your opinions on issues. The basileia of God is so many things and appears in so many ways, that I could never list them all.

The basileia of God is a process all of us are called to participate in, not a final destination we hope to be magically transported to. And if you look around you see it is true here at St. Peter’s. We are all striving to bring about the basileia of God in our own way. Examine your heart and your life. What can you do for the kingdom of God today?

Sermon for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, November 19, 2006

There is a multi-million dollar industry based partly on our readings for today. It is the “end times” industry. Millions of dollars have been made in books, tapes, and sermons trying to explain the details of the end times to people.

Sadly it is a terrible waste of money. Christians throughout the centuries have been sure that the end times were “just around the corner”. And they were wrong. Paul himself was sure that the ends times were going to happen in his or his hearers lifetime. And he was wrong. You have to think that if Paul couldn’t get it right, what chance does anyone stand today? And yet there are people out there in books and in pulpits still convinced that they can figure it out.

Much fear and uncertainty surrounds the entire end times issue. You can feel the fear in the books and article written about it. And if you hear sermons preached or read book by persons from the end times industry you can feel the fear as well. Fear of being left out. Fear of isolation and desolation.

One member of the parish did observe that perhaps this fear could be used to good purposes. The member suggested that we remind everyone to get their tithes up to date before the end times occur. After all, you don’t want to be behind at the end of the world.

Another problem with believing that the end is just around the corner is how it colors are attitudes towards those things that Jesus has called us to do. After all, if the world will end next week why bother collecting food for the hungry, or clothes for the naked, or visited the sick or imprisoned. That will all be taken care of very soon by God so no need for us to bother about it.

But this would be wrong, very wrong. Not just because the odds are that the world will not end today. But because it is an abrogation of our responsibilities to those in the world around us who are less fortunate that ourselves. God calls us to serve them, to feed them, to cloth them and to visit them. We must follow this call until the end does indeed come.

But there is more than just fear in the readings for today. There is also hope. I don’t actually mind people spending their hard earned money if they are interested in reading about end times theories. What does concern me is my perception that the end times industry panders to fear rather than hope.

No where in the Gospels do we hear Jesus call us to spread fear and concern about the future. In fact some passages advise us to not worry about the future at all. But what the Gospels clearly do call us to do is the spread the Good News of Jesus. This is a message of hope, not fear. The Gospels also call us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit and sick and those in prison. This is also a message of hope, not fear.

Sermon for the Twenth-Third Sunday after Pentecost, November 12, 2006

Oh my favorite topic once again! Actually that is not true. It is really one of my least favorite topics. But still for today, we get to talk about money. I suppose it is timely since the Vestry is once again working on the budget and we will soon to presenting that to the congregation and beginning once again our parish stewardship campaign.

And if we have to talk about money I think the first thing to share, is that God is great. St. Peter’s has been blessed this year once again, thanks to the generosity of many, many people.

So if things are so good, we do we keep talking about money. Well we keep talking about it because Jesus and the Bible keep talking about it. I forget now where I heard this and don’t remember the actual numbers anyway, but it was once told to me that the Bible speaks over 600 times about money in one way or another and less that 100 times about sex. And yet it seems in many churches in the world today we hear a lot more said about sex than money. That would indicate to me that something is wrong in our priorities.

And so we return to today’s story in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus sits opposite the treasury (or offering plate if he was here at St. Peter’s) and watches the crowd coming forward to put in their money. They are giving their gifts to God. Out of this crowd coming forward to give their gifts to God the author observes the rich people putting in large sums and then along comes a poor widow with two small copper coins which he tosses in. This poor widow is giving sacrificially. Jesus points out that she “has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” After this gift she literally didn’t have two coins in her pocket to rub together. It is this same level of giving that Jesus had called the rich young man to. To give all that he had to the poor and follow Jesus. And yet the response of the rich young man was to go away in sadness because he was wealthy. He could give all he had away and follow Jesus.

Now a more practical person, like myself, would, if giving something at all in this time of great financial crisis and need, might have convinced myself to give one of the two small coins and save the second for myself. After all, that is a gift of 50% of all that I would possess back to God. That is a very exceedingly generous donation.

But when you compare this donation to what the others were giving it seems like nothing at all to us. But it was definitely not nothing to Jesus. It was the most valuable gift given that day. This poor woman held nothing back from God. She was willing to give all to God. And she had to be demonstrating her trust in God at the same time. Widows and orphans were the most disadvantaged groups in Jesus time. She would have nothing to fall back on. She would have no one to depend on. So this woman turned to God. She gave all that the possessed to God with the expectation and trust that God would care for her needs.

This is not unlike the other widow we met today. This widow was ready to die. She had nothing left but enough to make one last loaf of bread for her and her son and then they would die. But Elijah called her to faith. Like the widow in Mark, Elijah called on this other widow to trust in God as well. She was also called on to give up all she had and trust in God. She did it and God provided for her needs.

To me this never seems the smart thing to do as I read these stories. To give up what I have in life and what I can control and instead trust in God is a hard thing to do and often seems just a bit crazy. And yet both these woman were able to do so. We know that it worked out well for the widow in First Kings. We never hear again about the widow in Mark.

How would have we responded if either of these women had come to us, asking for advice on what to do? I know that my faith would have been more lacking then theirs. I would have encouraged them to give to God, but not everything! I would have reminded that the standard goal for the Episcopal Church is to tithe, so even though it would be a sacrifice, I would have encouraged both to tithe. How much less my faith is than theirs is!

How do we apply these lessons in our lives today though. I’m relative sure that none of us here, including myself, is going to run out and give every last cent in our possession to the church. And just as it is hard to turn this into a lesson convincing everyone to give everything, it is also hard to turn it into a lesson about tithing. After all, all the other people in the story were most likely tithing and they get no recognition from Jesus at all. And it is very hard to turn someone who gave everything into a dutiful tither.

I think that the lesson we can take today is about control. I know for myself, I’m the kind of person that likes to be in control. The idea of turning control over to someone else, even God, is very difficult. All of us like to control that which is going on around us.

But these two widows were willing to give up that control. What is it in my and your life that we want to control and not give up to God. Each of us needs to examine our lives. Those areas which we refuse to turn over to God can become idols in our lives eventually controlling us rather than us controlling them.

Control. We want it. God needs it. If we are to be effective serving God in the world today we need to turn it all over to God. Just as those two poor widows were willing to do.

Sermon for All Saint's Day, November 5, 2005, RCL

Today we are marking the observance of All Saint’s Day. Faith communities all over the world are joining us in this observance. Some read names out loud. Some light candles. Some remember in silence. This day is observed in many different ways, but always with the same intention, to remember those who have gone before us in faith. Why do we do this? Why should we remember those who have died? It can bring up some very painful memories.

We choose to remember because we are people who believe that there is more to life than just these years which we spend on earth. It is because we are a people who believe in the truth of the resurrection.

This is not to say that we haven’t or do not mourn and weep over the loss of those who we remember. We do. We miss them terribly. This is completely understandable. It is something even Jesus could identify with. When Jesus saw the place where Lazarus had been buried, he wept. Weeping and mourning is a completely human response to death. It would be wrong to try and cover up or ignore the pain of our loss.

But we do not mourn as other do. We do not mourn because we have no hope. We do not mourn because we feel that all is lost. We mourn, but we still have faith in the power of God and in the eternity of life. The reaction of Jesus is the same as ours to the death of a loved one. We weep. We mourn. We deeply regret the loss to ourselves and our family. But we are not left without hope. We have faith in the same Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead. We have faith in Jesus who himself rose from the dead.

For Christians death is not the end of everything. It is the marking of a new beginning. And so we remember today those who have died. We may remember with tears in our eyes. Or we may remember with a smile on our face for all the wonderful and fun times we shared together with loved ones who are now absent from us.

The passage today from the prophet Isaiah looks forward to that day in which there will no longer be tears or death. Days in which death and the grave will be overcome. In a very real sense those days are with us now. And they were actually with the disciples as well. This is crystal clear in the lesson today found in John. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Jesus shows the power of God over death and the grave. It is a powerful portent of what is to come in the death and resurrection of Jesus himself. And yet the raising of Lazarus should not have been all that surprising. Those who had been following Jesus had already seen some pretty amazing things. Jesus had already healed all sorts of infirmities. Jesus has already done amazing, powerful things. This is just one more.

In the resurrection of Jesus death has been destroyed for all time. We are saints for eternity. This is why Paul could state with such authority: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, … will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[1]

This is why we continue this observance year after year. We know that in the end we will be reunited with our loved ones.

There is a song in the Episcopal Hymnal called:

I sing a song of the saints of God Hymnal 293

1 I sing a song of the saints of God,

patient and brave and true,

who toiled and fought and lived and died

for the Lord they loved and knew.

And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,

and one was a shepherdess on the green:

they were all of them saints of God and I mean,

God helping, to be one too.

2 They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,

and his love made them strong;

and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,

the whole of their good lives long.

And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,

and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;

and there’s not any reason no, not the least,

why I shouldn’t be one too.

3 They lived not only in ages past,

there are hundreds of thousands still,

the world is bright with the joyous saints

who love to do Jesus’ will.

You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,

in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,

for the saints of God are just folk like me,

and I mean to be one too.

So on this All Saints Day, let us commit our lives once again to being on of those saints and people can meet in school and lanes, in church and trains. Let each of us mean to be one to.

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[1] Romans 8:28 (NLT)

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, September 24, 2006

Try to imagine this in your mind. You are back in the in the time of Jesus following him around and seeing Jesus do wonderful, powerful, amazing things. After following him for several years he tells you that he will be betrayed and killed. You don’t understand but are afraid to ask for clarification. And then later you start arguing about who is more important in your group. This is basically the story in the Gospel today. But so much of it seems strange. It raises so many questions.

Who is it that will betray and kill Jesus? The betrayal part could seem easy to define though hard to understand. Betrayal is an act by friend. It is done by a person on your side. Someone who stabs you in the back. Betrayal hurts. It is done by someone close to you. So when there is a warning of betrayal everyone starts looking around at each other, just like at the Last Supper I suppose.

The killing part on the other hand, that is not so hard. Anyone can do that. Just look at all the slaughter going on in the world around us. One of the sad truths of history is that much anti-Semitism in the world is as a result of the Christian tradition of blaming the death of Jesus on the Jewish people. In our more modern times there has been a move to set the historical record straight and point out that it was indeed the Roman authorities who killed Jesus. It was the Romans who had the power, the ability and the will to carry out the murder of Jesus. The Jewish people of that time did not. This fresh approach is historically accurate. However, it is also still wrong. It is wrong because it is theologically wrong.

The answer to who betrayed Jesus and who killed Jesus must be found in theology, not history or anti-Semitism. And the answer is the same to both who betrayed and who killed Jesus. The answer for all of us is “me”. I killed Jesus and you killed Jesus. One of the marvelous things about Education for Ministry is the teaching that all of us can and should be theologians. As Christians theology should be the thing we look to first in the answer to questions in our lives.

While unfortunately rarely sung in any Episcopal Church that I have ever attended, Hymn #158, “Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended” is tremendously powerful and theologically accurate. Verses one and two are as follows:

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended,
That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by Thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

And here is the key part:

Who was the guilty- Who brought this upon Thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee.
'Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee!
I crucified Thee.

“Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee! I crucified Thee.” This is the truth of the Gospel. Sadly in our world today too many Christians are busy arguing about who will be the greatest rather than humbly acknowledging our responsibilities to God.

It is in our human nature to not want to own up to our failures and weaknesses in life and instead argue about other things, like who is first or who is better. Or perhaps to argue about who is right and who is wrong. This is exactly the situation played out in the Gospel reading for today.

The disciples were faced with two challenged from Jesus. First he would be betrayed. They should have been looking among themselves, questioning their commitment to the person they had chosen to follow, but they did not. Second he would be killed. They should have been looking around trying to figure out who in the world would do that, but they did not. They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying to them so they basically ignored it. And then got on to the important business of trying to decide who would be first in the group.

Unfortunately Christianity down through the centuries has not done any better than the disciples. The Christian Church has only been too happy to point fingers at Judas as the betrayer and at either the Jewish people or the Romans as the murders of Jesus. In essence we have done no better than the disciples. Instead we have spent centuries arguing about who is first. We have argued and defended who may enslave who. We have argued and defended who may marry who. We have argued and defended who may ordain who. And now we are arguing about who may love who and in the midst of that who is more pure than whom.

These purists insist that you must agree with them or else you are apostate or a heretic and you must be excluded from them. They refused to participate in the Eucharistic gatherings at General Convention lest they be tainted. They will refuse the leadership of our duly elected Presiding Bishop even though they voted for her.

But at least the disciples were ashamed of what they were doing. Regretfully, the purists in our midst now have no shame about what they are doing.

However, I have great hope for the Episcopal Church. While some sadly are mislead by these often dishonest purists, I believe most faithful members of our church see these people for who and what they are. Eventually, the purists will leave the Episcopal Church and I will grieve for the loss of them. But in the end they will quietly disappear and waste away as they strive to maintain purity by excluding more and more people. At the same time, the Episcopal Church will continue to move forward, ministering to the needy, helping the oppressed and sharing the Good News of Jesus in the world around us.

Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, September 10, 2006

“…their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

This would seem so very easy. What could be more simple? Unfortunately it is not that easy because we are a people who seem to love other things. We love money, cars, prestige, honor, our selves. There always seems to be something out there to attract each and every one of us as an idol. It is religions based on idols that are worthless.

Talking about idolatry is really not very trendy today. It sometimes seems as dated as some of the prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures. But it can occur in so many forms that it is time, I think, to examine the idea anew. I find it somewhat interesting that in our current struggles in the Episcopal Church idolatry seems to be making a strong comeback. Like the song of the Sirens it calls people to leap into the abyss of idol worship. It blinds us to the truth.

For some in the Episcopal Church today the idol seems to be the Anglican Communion. We are willing to sacrifice anything or anyone at the altar to this idol. In fact, sadly some are willing even to be dishonest in their pursuit of this idol. At General Convention one of the most amazing things, and to me the most surprising thing, was seeing how different dioceses voted on some issues. I observed conservative dioceses voting with liberal dioceses in what I could only see as an attempt to force the sacrifice of the Episcopal Church on the altar of idolatry to gain access to the Anglican Communion. The liberals were at least voting their hearts. The conservatives however were coldly calculating in voting against the things they claim to hold dear and voting for the things to which they are totally opposed. It was an example of idolatry pure and simple, clothed in Christian platitudes. It was for me a sad day.

But reflecting on it has caused me to remember something very important. You can find idols where you least expect them. Who would expect a concept like the Anglican Communion to become an idol? Certainly not me. I wonder if fear of idolatry was why Jesus told the deaf man he healed to not tell anyone about it. Perhaps Jesus was concerned that people would make an idol out of the healing, missing the point of God being among them. And it would be so easy to do. After all, there is nothing wrong with a great healing. But allowing a healing to eclipse the presence of God in their midst would be an act of idolatry.

Of course Episcopalians are not the only ones able to find idols out of what should and can be good ways to spread the kingdom. People make an idol of Scripture, placing readings of God’s own word in conflict with the very message of God. People can make idols of their church, just as it has happened with the idea of the Anglican Communion. People can also make idols of power, authority, money, the creeds, the 39 Articles, our own personal beliefs, and many, many other things. Seeing God as any of these things is idolatry plain and simple. But it is not plain and simple when the idol in our life is something associated with the church. After all, how could that be an idol? It is about the church!

Many people are going though life in our world today looking for faith or religion, or something to cling to. They might not even have a word for what they are looking for. There are many people and organizations out there willing to try to tell them that they have the answer. Some of these people and organizations claim to be Christian, some claim to be of other faiths, some claim to be of a faith all of their own.

What saddens me is how these searching individuals may feel if they look to the Episcopal Church for the answer to their problems. We seem to be so tied up with political idols and issues, demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice people to them, that I have to wonder who would want to come to us? What if they were the next person needed to be sacrificed at the altar of expediency? I would not blame them for saying “no thank you” and moving on to the church next door.

In fact, we see that happening in some places in the Episcopal Church. Some alarmists would try and convince us that the Episcopal Church is dying. You might well look around and disagree, because at St. Peter’s we are growing. The secret of growth is no secret at all. The key to growth is a loving, caring, Christian community. That is what we are blessed to have here at St. Peter’s. Unlike other parishes who are willing to waste tremendous amounts of time and energy on the idolatrous things available to worry about, we focus on loving others and serving God. Hmmm, that is starting to sound strangely like this sermon began: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

I think that if we can maintain this focus we will be served well in our Christian witness in this community.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 13, 2006

Have you ever been misunderstood or falsely accused of doing wrong when you were in the right? It is an injustice that happens to many people and perhaps to some of us here today. It is not fair and it is not right and it is extremely frustrating when it happens. But we live in an imperfect world with imperfect people so it is bound to happen now and again. While it has been said that the only sure things in life are death and taxes, I’m not sure that I would agree. These kinds of mistakes are all to common among people who are only too willing to believe the worst in others rather than the best. Perhaps it will not happen to each and every one of us, but it will certainly happen to some of us. I know it has happened to me in the past when my actions had been misunderstood by others and I have been occasionally shocked when I finally find out.

We are not alone in these misunderstanding though. Jesus also suffered from them on a regular basis. In the pericope from the Gospel of John today this is very clear. This passage comes immediately after Jesus has feed the five thousand and walked on water. And yet those around him are complaining because he is claiming to be the bread from heaven. The affront is even greater in this case because, as they complain, “is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” In other words, “Hey isn’t this Joe from down the street, who does he think he is?”

Just previously Jesus had just fed a crowd all the bread they could eat and is now trying to explain the deeper implications of his actions. And people don't like it. They misunderstand him. With his bread in their stomach they complain about the message. They were complaining about the message because they did not like its implications. They could not have been unfamiliar with the history or their forefathers and knew exactly what the implication was when a person claimed to be "the bread that came down from heaven." They knew about the manna in the wilderness. They knew that in making this statement Jesus was claiming to be sent from God. And lets face it, how would any of us feel if someone approached us claiming to have been sent from God? Even if that person had done some amazing things. Besides, who wants the person next door to be the one from God. That is too pedestrian. If something comes from God we want it to be showy, powerful, mystical and life changing. We don’t’ want it to be the person from across the street.

For the real problem with people claiming to be sent from God is that it usually blows our ideal of who or what God is out of the water. And we don't like change very much in our lives. You see, if someone actually does come from God then we have to listen to them and do what they tell us. They might disabuse us of our comfortable picture and relationship with a God we have managed to tame to be our own kind of pet.

This passage challenges us to ponder the very real and important question of who do we think God is? It is easier and far simpler to never think about it. The safe path is to just go along without ever challenging ourselves to really struggle with God in our life.

But I think it is a good thing to examine just who we think God is. For some God is like a benevolent grandmother or grandfather dispensing goodies to us from heaven. To others God is like a stern father or mother always quick to criticize or discipline. People may see God as a powerful yet distant figure not particularly interested in what is going on in the world or in our lives. Many find comfort with God as the fire department ready to rescue us when we are in really deep water and needing to be rescued. To some, God simply does not exist.

But none of those are complete or accurate views of God. They are at best incomplete pictures formed by our experiences. But then again, I’m not sure that any human being probably has a perfect view of God. I think that what the passages today are trying to tell us is that understanding God is about relationships. And not just our relationship with God.

But Jesus was trying to tell the hearers something in this passage. Jesus was the “bread came down from heaven.”

What is bread? Fr. Michael Oleska made the following observation: “Flour, yeast and water, baked to a certain temperature? No, it is much more, for to create bread, one needs the whole world. The earth must turn, the rain must fall. The soil must be fertile, the sun must shine, night must come, the wind must blow. If all this is in harmony, and humans interact with it appropriately, tending the garden as God originally planned, bread can be baked, communion with God restored.”[1] I think the point is that relationship with God is about much more than we tend to usually casually assume. Too often the Christian church tends to focus completely on the relationship between the individual and God. But the point Father Michael was trying to make is that to be Christian is to be in relationship with much more. Just as the passage in Ephesians was emphasizing relationships within the Christian community, Father Michael is trying to help us grasp that relationship with God is also relationship with that which God has created.

In fact, while a relationship is God is definitely a part of the Christian experience, I think we are missing out on a lot if we don’t also understand the importance of being in right relationship with others and the rest of the created world. You have but to look at the world around us and see so many people who fail to understand that by the devastation we see in the world around us. People are willing to kill one another and destroy the environment with nary a thought about it.

It is up to the Church to work on setting this right in the world in whatever ways we can. We have the bread which came down from heaven. Now it is our responsibility to share it with the world around us.

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[1] Michael J. Oleska, “The Alaskan Orthodox Mission and Cosmic Christianity”, The Chant of Life: Inculturation and the People of the Land, Liturgical Studies Four, 2003, p. 188.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 25, 2006

In the name of the God the Creator, Jesus the Liberator, and the Holy Spirit the Sustainer. AMEN.

Life can be so unpredictable. As Fr. Emmanuel and I were returning from General Convention this week, we both had our travel plans in hand. We knew exactly what was happening and when on our travels. Or at least we thought so. I was the lucky one. I was only delayed a few hours. Fr. Emmanuel ended up spending an unexpected 14 hours in Chicago. Life is a lot like our travels this week. You never know, for an absolute certainty what is going to happen next. There are no guarantees. All of us face uncertainties and trials.

Job was surely caught by surprise in his life. He was living the ultimate success story. He was wealthy, had a wonderful life, a loving wife, and fantastically perfect children. It was all a man could ask for. I’m sure he felt that he would die content and with nothing to regret. But he would loose it all. The words we read in Job today is the response he gets from God after questioning and expressing his frustration with all that has fallen upon him. To me, the response from God seems rather shocking. It does not seem particularly pastoral!

But when I turn to the Gospel I see what seems to me to be the same thing. The narrative in Mark picks up just after Jesus has spent a lot of time sharing with the disciples. And after that, to get away from the crowds and get a small break at least for a short while, Jesus and the disciples climb in for a boat ride. Jesus falls into a deep sleep and soon a wild storm arises. The disciples are convinced that they are about to perish on the sea. The disciples panic in fear for their own lives and wake Jesus, rebuking him for his lack of concern over their own lives. And then we have, what seems to me, another most unpastoral moment. After Jesus calms the seas he rebukes the disciples for their fear and lack of faith.

Both of these stories trouble me greatly in the response we see from God to those who are in the story. I like to think I would never respond that way to people who had lost all, family and belongings or who had expressed a lack of faith in a moment of fear. Perhaps because I see myself in these people. I see myself lacking faith when fearful or having suffered a great calamity. I want a little more solace and comfort in those moments of failure. And I would imagine, rightly so, that any of you would expect that as well from Fr. Emmanuel or myself.

I find myself struggling for what is the right answer. The “in your face” response of Jesus and God leaves me uncomfortable to say the least. Not that the responses were not true. They were. We should always have faith. We should recognize the power of God in our lives and in the world. And perhaps since God knows our hearts God knew the answer that best suited in each of these situations. Which sort of brings me back to the passage in Job again. Who am I to question the ways of God?

But I think what ties all of this together, the loss, the fear, God’s response to it all, and my response to these stories all come together in one wonderful phrase in the reading from Second Corinthians. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.”

In all that happens in our lives, God is there. In the good times and in the bad times, God is there. In the peaceful times and in the fearful times, God is there. God’s purpose is to reconcile the world to himself. And it is important to note that we are instructed to carry that message of reconciliation to others. It is our job to spread the message that God is reconciling the world to himself. You see, God is not reconciling only Episcopalians to himself. God is not reconciling only Roman Catholics to himself. God is not reconciling only Baptists to himself. What is God reconciling to himself? The world. Not just the parts we enjoy. Not just the people who are so full of faith that they never have fear. Not just those who never doubt or question God or God’s existence or God’s plan. God is busy reconciling each and every person in the world to himself.

There is good news and bad news in this for us. The good news is that each and every one of us is being reconciled to God through Christ. And the bad news is that each and every one of us is being reconciled to God through Christ. Those we love and those we love to hate are all reconciled to God.

This is the truth which we need to stand up for. There are too many in the Christian community only to willing, and dare I say happy, to consign others to hell. But that is not what Paul was saying in this passage. He was saying quite the opposite. As a church we must be willing to proclaim the truth. We must stand up against those who would teach otherwise.

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 28, 2006

In the name of the God the Creator, Jesus the Liberator, and the Holy Spirit the Sustainer. AMEN.

Left Behind. That is what happened to the disciples. They were left behind. In the gospel lesson Jesus prays for them just before he leaves them. And in the other two lessons they are writing about dealing with the after effects of being left behind.

For some of you those two words, "left behind" may be very familiar. Some of you may have read part or all (some 14 books I think now) of the series of novels by Tim LeHay called "Left Behind." This is a series devoted to the rapture and the end times. These books are a fanciful fictitional accounting of Mr. LeHay's beliefs about what will happen during the end times. The problem with these books of fiction and others like them, such as "The DaVinci Code" is that it is very difficult to separate the fact from the fiction as you get caught up in the accounts. It all soon becomes very believable as fact and we end up finding ourselves accepting a faith that comes from very fertile minds of fiction writers.

Followers of the "Left Behind" series forget that there is not much basis in the Bible for this series. They forget that Tim LeHay wrote most of his beliefs as non-fiction in the 1970's. But those books, read from our current time look ludricious at best and so Mr. LeHay has turned to a safer venue, fiction.

However this mixing of fact and fiction, or even worse the Holy Scriptures and fiction can be a dangerous thing. Once the lines are blurred that which is only in a person's own imagination starts to become cold, hard facts for all of us readers. And when we get mixed up in these fanciful fictitious accounts of what is or will be happening in the world we loose touch with what is truly important for us today.

The truth is that Jesus did leave the disciples behind. They were left behind to carry on the work of God in the world, just as we are called to do today. They were left behind with work to do. This is a much different call than that which is expressed in the series. I think they were left behind as pearls for others to find. Just like Jesus.

But pearls have a very inauspicious beginning. They start as an irritating grain of sand. Much like a small pebble in your shoe. It may be very small indeed, but try and explain that to your foot. These grains of sand irritate and bother the oyster so much that eventually it must do something about it and it does. In the end we have a very beautiful thing, much clamored for by many people for its beauty and wonder.

I think when you read the Gospels and the story of Jesus you see this same thing happening. Those around Jesus were often very irritated by him. Certainly the Pharisees and the scribes were. The all found him like a grain of sand in a pearl or a small pebble in our shoe. But I think we can also see that he often irritated his disciples as well in the ways he acted out his call in the world.

I believe that the important issue to remember is that we have also been left behind. We follow in the tradition of the first disciples in being also called to remain behind in the world. What we need to worry about is what we do. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted by trivia and fiction in responding to our call to follow Jesus. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not against fiction and I’m not calling for book burnings. But we need to look at things with a critical mind. I have read “The DaVinci Code” and enjoyed it, but if I take my church history from that source I’m way off the mark.

God calls us to follow Jesus. This call entails a lot of things. Faithfulness in regularly attending worship. Giving to support your church. Reading the Holy Scripture. Praying. Caring for others. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Looking out for the less fortunate and those who cannot protect themselves. Loving the unlovable. Remaining in fellowship with those you disagree with. This is not an easy list or by any means an exhaustive one, just a few of the things that came into my head while I was thinking of what it means to follow Jesus.

And sometimes it is being a grain of sand. Being that irritation that helps usher change in our community. And if we are lucky enough sometimes it means being transformed into a pearl. But following Jesus is always being true to our beliefs and careful about how we form them.

The idea for the Pearl/grain of sand idea in disciples being left in the world. (note 1)

Note 1: Sermons That Work, May 28, 2006 - Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year B [RCL]

by the Rev. James Liggett