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The Voice of Authority and The Red Door

2012-01-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

Sermon

TheVoice of Authority and The Red Door

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Mark 1: 21-28

The year 1995 was not a good year for me.Professionally, I was burned out; personally I was confused. After years ofcruising along thinking, “Life is great – I know just where I am going and howI am going to get there,” I had reached a cliff. It was a cliff that abruptlydropped off into a big black hole - a big, black hole that, seemingly, had nobottom.

My road of life so confidently embarked uponin my early twenties, had now, it seemed, ended abruptly at age 53. It didn’t gently branch off into twodifferent paths; it didn’t helpfully offer road signs pointing to “mostsuccess,” moderate success,” “happiness,” “sorrow,” “danger; or, notrespassing.” My road didn’t even have the courtesy to say,” Dead end;” it juststopped; abruptly and without warning.

As you might imagine, I felt quite sorry formyself. I shed copious amounts of tears. I uttered an unending litany of “howcould this happen to me?” statements. And, after several weeks, I finally, Idecided to drop everything, except my little dog, and head off to Portland,Maine to spend some time with my daughter and her husband.

I arrived in Portland; leased an apartment;walked my dog incessantly; and cried a lot. A word of advice – if you ever findyourself in those same shoes – don’t drop everything and go to live near yourdaughter, who is married, with only a dog for a companion, in a town where youknow no one and where the snow drifts over your line of vision in thewintertime.

The situation was bleak – really bleak.

Then one day, walking down State Street, Ipassed the Cathedral Church of St. Luke. It wasn’t snowing that day. In fact,the sun was shining and there was a hint of spring in the air. Without givingit any thought, as I passed the church I looked at its huge red doors that weretightly shut. I remember saying to myself, “The church is probably locked.” Atthat same moment, I heard a voice. Yes, I heard a voice, a voice with authority.The voice said; “Come in.”

The voice that I heard was without question avoice of authority. It was a voice of authority, and a voice that astounded me.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear aboutothers many years ago who heard that same voice of authority and who were, as wasI, astounded.

“They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered thesynagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught themas one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1: 21-23)

Jesus’ early ministry was based in his hometown of Capernaum, a small town on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee.Jesus grew up in Capernaum. His first disciples, Peter and Andrew, were alsofrom Capernaum. Jesus had been teaching and praying regularly at his localsynagogue in Capernaum for many years; he was not a newcomer. In short, it isquite likely that everyone in the little local synagogue knew Jesus quite welland had heard him teach many times before.

However, for some reason on this particularday the gathered group of worshippers saw and heard him with new eyes and withnew ears. They saw and heard him as someone with power; someone with authority.

Somehow, on this day, Jesus’ teaching - theway in which he spoke - was very different. Jesus was not just interpretingTorah; he was not simply mouthing doctrinal statements based on his interpretationof Jewish Law. No, today, Jesus was speaking as God’s son. His teaching, hiswords and the way in which he spoke them, came directly from God. He spoke withauthority – the authority given him by God the Father.

I heard a voice, a voice with authority that said; “Come in.”

When the scribes and all the others in thesynagogue heard Jesus command the unclean spirit to “Be silent, and come out of him,” they heard a voice of authority,and they were amazed. They kept asking one another, “What is this – a new teaching – with authority! He commands even theunclean spirits, and they obey him.”

I was amazed when I heard the voice with authoritysay, “Come in.” I said to myself, “What is this; should I obey this command?”

Across the years, from Mark’s time right upuntil today, Jesus still speaks to us with authority. When we are overwhelmedwith difficulties - grief, addiction, illness - whatever the situation - if we listen withthe ears of our heart, if we listen carefully, we will hear Jesus saying withauthority, “Come in.”

What does this mean for us today – what isthe good news that we can take from this voice of authority that will sustainus and point the way to salvation; to eternal peace in God’s Kingdom?

The good news is that when Christ speaks tous with authority – through Scripture – through our baptism – through the breadand the wine that together we receive each week – through our prayers – throughthe kindness that we show each other – through tightly shut red doors - when Christspeaks to us with authority; Christ ACTS.

When we hear his voice, if we accept hisinvitation to “come in,” and give our lives – our hearts, our souls, and ourminds - to Christ, he becomes the Lord of our life. He becomes present and becomesthe road that leads us through the tangled maze of our everyday struggles hereon earth into the eternal Kingdom of Heaven. When Christ speaks to us, if welisten, the tightly shut red door is opened. We find our way and our lives aretransformed.

Back in Maine, I went through the red doors of the Cathedral andentered a cold and darkened church. Afraid, yet drawn forward, I sat in a pewnear the sanctuary, sank onto a beautiful needlepoint kneeling cushion, andimmediately began to cry. A priest silently appeared out of nowhere and withouta word sat down next to me. The road for the rest of my life re-appeared.

I am sure that many among you have had a similar experience. Youhave heard that same voice of authority. A voice of authority saying, “Comein;” and you have accepted that same invitation; an invitation to “come in;” toenter the tightly shut red doors. And, in doing so, your cliff to nowheredisappeared; you discovered a new road; a new way of being in Christ, withChrist, and through Christ.

There is another piece to this story, however; a piece that wemust never forget. When Christ speaks to us with authority; when he invites usto open the tightly shut red doors; he saves us; we are with him and he is withus. But that is not all that is implicit in Christ’s invitation to us.

Once we have been welcomed and feel at home on the other side ofthe red doors, we are called to become a shepherd to those who hear the voiceof authority, enter the cold and darkened church through the red doors, and sitdown and cry. We are called to welcome others.

In John’s Gospel Jesus reveals himself to us as the Son of Godthrough seven “I am” statements.

I AM the bread of life.

I AM the light of the world.

I AM the door.

I AM the good shepherd.

I AM the resurrection and the life.

I AM the way, the truth and the life.

I AM the true vine.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus revealed hisintention for the disciples. He commissioned them to carry his voice ofauthority throughout the world, when he said:

“All authority in heaven and onearth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I havecommanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”(Mark 28:16-20)

We who have heard and responded to the voice of authorityare blessed with God’s grace in lives made right through faith. Are we readyfor the next step? Are we ready to silently approach the stranger in our midstwho enters with fear, crying for help, and sit gently beside him or her as theylisten to Christ enter their lives? Are we ready to help them know that Christis with us always, to the very end of the age?

The Light

2011-12-11T15:27:00.001-08:00

Sermon

TheLight

Sunday, December 11, 2011

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Inpreparing for this sermon, I mentioned to my husband, Devin, that I planned toinclude a discussion of the rose candle that we traditionally light on thethird Sunday in Advent. In his customary direct and, usually, very “right on”way he replied, “Why only the rose candle? Why not all of them? I don’tunderstand what any of them are about.”

Well,I don’t know if that’s true of everyone here – I am thinking that many of youknow exactly what each of the Advent candles represent. Nevertheless, I tookDevin’s comment to heart, remembering that the basis of our faith is communalworship – reading Scripture, praying and breaking bread together. Togetherbeing the instrumental word here. And, if we are to be together, it goeswithout saying, that we should share a common understanding of what we are“together” on.

Today,as we observe the lighting of the advent candles in our Advent wreath; as we offerprayers of praise, thanksgiving and repentance; as we await the birth of thebaby Jesus in a Bethlehem manger, let us pray that together we can in somesmall way understand the true wonder of what it is that we are awaiting – theGood News.

Theword Advent means"coming" or "arrival." The focus of our activities here atGrace in the Desert, and in other Christian communities throughout the world, duringthis Advent season is to prepare for the celebration of the arrival, or birth,of Jesus. We are preparing to celebrate the incarnation of God in the babyJesus. We are preparing for the birth of a child through whom all of creation willbe reconciled to God.

Scripturereadings for Advent reflect on the gift that we are about to receive. They alsoalert us to our expected participation in receiving this gift through a life ofrepentance, faithfulness, stewardship, mission and the hope of eternal life.

Paulin his first letter to the Thessalonians says:

Rejoicealways, ¹⁷pray withoutceasing, ¹⁸give thanksin all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not despise the words of prophets, ²¹but test everything; hold fast to what is good; ²²abstain from every form of evil. ²³May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may yourspirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our LordJesus Christ. ²⁴The one whocalls you is faithful, and he will do this. (1 Thes. 5:16-24)

Adventis also the time for a reflective journey that helps us to focus our spiritual livesas members of the Grace in the Desert community. As we anticipate God’s arrivalin the Incarnation, we take on the responsibility of understanding our role as acommunity commissioned to "love the Lord your God with all yourheart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself," remembering theprophet Isaiah’s incredibly powerful words:

“Thespirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he hassent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, toproclaim liberty to the captives and to release the prisoners; to proclaim theyear of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance for our God; to comfort allwho mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil ofgladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”(Isaiah61:1-4)

Adventis also a time to reflect on the amazing gift that we receive through theIncarnation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers a powerful image of this incrediblebirth story in one of his Advent reflections:

“Whatis going on here, where Mary becomes the mother of God, where God comes intothe world in the lowliness of a manger? World judgment and world redemption –that is what is happening here. And it is the Christ child in the mangerhimself who holds world judgment and world redemption. He pushes back the highand mighty; he overturns the thrones of the powerful; he humbles the haughty;his arm exercises power over all the high and the mighty; he lifts what islowly, and makes it great and glorious in his mercy. (Bonhoeffer,D., God is in the Manger; p. 42)

A second Bonhoeffer quote, this time from aChristmas sermon that he delivered in 1940, completes his thoughts on thearrival of the Christ-child:

“This is about the birth of a child, not theastonishing work of a strong man, not the bold discovery of a wise man, not thepious work of a saint. It really is beyond all our understanding: the birth ofa child shall bring about the great change, shall bring to all mankindsalvation and deliverance.”(“The Government upon the Shoulders of a Child,Christmas 1940)

John’s Gospel also describes the arrival of Jesusinto our lives just as powerfully, and makes clear that this child was sentfrom God, and that this child is God.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe throughhim. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light…He said,‘I am a voice crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of theLord.’” (John 1:6-8, 23)

John was sent by God to point people to Jesus; topoint people to the light; to “Makestraight the way of the Lord.” Jesusis the Light. To see Jesus – to see the light - is to believe; to have faith;to be redeemed; to be reconciled to God.

In preparing for the birth of Jesus we mustunderstand that like John the Baptist we are anointed through our baptismalvows to carry on the work of John; to point people to Jesus; to point people tothe light.

I believe I have now arrived back where I started – or,at least I hope so. We are back to the candles – the light.

Atthe beginning of Advent we decorate the church with evergreen wreaths, boughs,or trees that help to symbolize the new and everlasting life brought throughJesus the Christ. The Advent wreathis a symbol of the beginning of the Church year. It is a circular evergreenwreath with five candles, four around the wreath and one in the center.

Thecircle of the wreath reminds usof God Himself, His eternity and endless mercy, which has no beginning or end.The green of the wreath speaksof the hope that we have in God, the hope of newness, of renewal, of eternallife. The candles symbolize thelight of God coming into the world through the birth of His son.

Thefour outer candles represent theperiod of waiting during the four Sundays of Advent, which themselves symbolizethe four centuries of waiting between the prophet Malachi and the birth ofChrist.

Thecolors of the candles vary withdifferent traditions, but there are usually three purple or blue candles,corresponding to the sanctuary colors of Advent, and one pink or rose candle.One of the blue candles is lighted the first Sunday of Advent, and a prayeroffered. On subsequent Sundays, previous candles are re-lighted with anadditional one lighted. The pink candle is usually lighted on the third Sundayof Advent. The pink symbolizes relief from the long wait for the advent of theChrist child will soon be over. The joy of his birth will soon be upon us.

Thecenter candle is white and iscalled the Christ Candle. It istraditionally lighted on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The central location of the Christ Candlereminds us that the incarnation is the heart of the season, giving light to theworld

Thelight of the candles itselfbecomes an important symbol of the season. The light reminds us that Jesus isthe light of the world that comes into the darkness of our lives to bringnewness, life, and hope. It also reminds us that we are called to be a light tothe world as we reflect the light of God's grace to others (Isa 42:6).

Theprogression in the lighting of the candles symbolizes the various aspects ofour waiting experience. As the candles are lighted over the four week period,it also symbolizes the darkness of fear and hopelessness receding and theshadows of sin falling away as more and more light is shed into the world. Theflame of each new candle reminds us that something is happening, and that moreis yet to come. Finally, the light that has come into the world is plainlyvisible as the Christ Candle is lighted at Christmas, and worshippers rejoiceover the fact that the hope and promise of long ago have been realized.

AMEN

More Light and More Water, Please

2011-11-20T15:21:00.001-08:00

Sermon
November 20, 2011

More Light and More Water, Please
Matthew 25:31-46

When I firstarrived in Nevada four years ago, one of the first things that I did was to buyone of those cute little cactus groupings that are arranged in colorful bowlsfilled with sand and rocks.

I was quite proud of the one I found. It hadseveral small round cacti that were bright orange, red, and green. It also hada rather spectacular tall green cactus with very long and very sharp spikes.The bowl itself was a multi-colored ceramic affair that fit perfectly on asmall table near one of the sofas in our living room.

I wastotally happy. I had become a true Nevadan complete with cactus and a couple ofdream catchers.

However, myhusband was quite annoying in his nagging me about the care of my cherishedcactus. Time after time he said, “It needs more light, and you need to water itevery once in a while.” I being my stubborn self, would reply, “It has plentyof light, and it’s a cactus, it doesn’t need water.”

The cactusremained on the table, pretty far from any natural light, and I watered it onlyonce every couple of months and even then with just a little bit of water.After all, it really didn’t need any water – right?

Wrong - Verywrong.

About eightmonths after I purchased this poor little set of plants, I happened to lookacross the room and saw, much to my dismay, that the proudly tall green andvery spiky cactus was limply hanging over the edge of the brightly colored bowl,and a milky fluid was leaking from its side - leaking all over my landlady’s fairlyexpensive beige wall-to-wall carpet.

My beautifulcactus was dead.

What in theworld you might ask does my ignorance how about to care for a few little cactusplants have to do with today’s readings.

A great dealreally. The words that we have just heard spoken in Ezekiel’s prophesy; Paul’sexhortations in his Letter To The Ephesians; and Jesus’ teachings in Matthew’sGospel are all about caring. Caring about God’s creation and caring about God’schildren; caring in a way that will make the world a better place; caring in away that drives us to live as Jesus would have us live – watching out for andover people, places and things in need, and helping where we can.

Caringenough to give light and water.

In the OldTestament lesson, Yahweh calls Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds ofIsrael – their leaders. He is to condemn them for feeding themselves and nottheir sheep. They have failed to heal the sick and to see the lost. They haveruled harshly, and as a result the sheep have become scattered and become foodfor wild animals.

Yahwehpronounces judgment: “Behold, I am against the shepherds…I will deliver mysheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them…I will bring themout of the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring theminto their own land…I will feed them with good pastures…I will seek that whichwas lost…I will feed them in justice.”

In Matthew’sParable of the Sheep and the Goats deeds of mercy, meeting the specific needsof people, especially those who may go unseen and unheard, such as thosesuffering from persecution throughout the world, are the way to righteousness;the way to eternal life.

Jesus’ wordsare emphatic. We need to be mindful of the poor and the needy throughout theworld. We need to care for all Christians - persecuted Christians inparticular; and we need to support those who proclaim the Gospel and those whomthey serve.

“Truly I tell you, just as you did not do itto one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go awayinto eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

We are leftwith no ambiguity with regard to our duty. Christ will bless those who showmercy to “the least of these;” to those who watch for opportunities to ministerto needy people throughout the world.

Paul in hisLetter to the Ephesians could not be clearer. He writes,

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Fatherof glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to knowhim, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is thehope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his gloriousinheritance among the saints, and whatis the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to theworking of his great power.”

Paul prays that, in our hearts – withthe eyes of our hearts enlightened, we will see the gift of salvation thatJesus gave us through his death on the cross. Paul prays that we will becomegood shepherds of that gift and that through it we will come to know the joysof eternal life both now and in the world to come.

Paul prays that in seeing the giftsthat God has given us, we will understand the incredible gift that we have togive others, and that we will engage in the giving of that gift – in caring forthe sick, the needy and the lonely.

Now, you are going to ask me how doesall that relate to the story about my cactus and to life, in general? Well, pretty simple – I was not a goodshepherd. I failed to recognize the gift of my little plant. I failed tounderstand that my little plant needed light and water and in so doing – Ikilled it. Pure and simple – it died for lack of care.

Now I am going to take a big leapfrom my cactus plant to our church, Grace in the Desert.

That, quote/unquote, nagging that youare hearing this month from various members of the vestry and clergy, thatnagging phrase that says, “Without your support we won’t be able to do thethings that God is asking us to do here at Grace,” is a nagging that we allneed to pay attention to.

Grace in the Desert is our gift; itis is our church and it has a mission – a mission in Christ to serve ourcommunity and to care for the sick, the needy and the poor – to care for God’ssheep. Our gift of Grace has made us shepherds.

Our jobs as shepherds cannot becarried out with insufficient light and water.

Most assuredly without abundantsupport Grace, and our work at Grace, will die just like my cactus; just likeany plant or human being will die if left uncared for; just like sheep whostray will die and be food for wild animals.

As members of the Grace in the Desertcommunity we are the shepherds of our Church. Our membership at Grace is asymbol, an outward manifestation of our membership in God’s Kingdom. As membersof God’s Kingdom, we need to tend our sheep. We need to hear the nagging. Weneed to move the plant, and water it! We need to respond with action; notcomplacency.

Grace in the Desert can be a greatlight in a troubled community and a troubled world. Grace in the Desert canheal many, many people. Grace in the Desert can bring us all closer to theeternal life that we all seek.

These are profoundly important goals.They cannot be reached without light and without water.

God Expects Justice

2011-10-01T10:32:00.001-07:00

SermonGod Expects JusticeMatthew 21:33-46October 2, 2011“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” (Is 5:7)Earlier this week I spent three days in Denver at the National District Attorney’s Association’s conference “Strategies for Justice: Advanced Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse and Exploitation.”The FBI was the main presenter at the conference. The audience came from all 50 states, and was packed with over 200 prosecutors, law enforcement agents, child protective services workers, and a smattering of others like me who have a growing interest in this topic.Each day workshops centered on different aspects of the issues that face youth throughout the nation who are the victims of sexual and physical abuse and children who have been trafficked – or, to use a, perhaps, more familiar word, pimped.More elegantly put, The US State Department identifies trafficking as: “someone who is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution – or maintained in prostitution through coercion.” They add, “It is critical to understand that a person’s initial consent to participate in prostitution is not legally determinative: if they are thereafter held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, they are trafficking victims.” You might ask, “How many kids does this really affect?” Overall, the incidence of child physical and sexual abuse has remained pretty much the same for the past 10 to 15 years – approximately 1 in every 4 children are affected. Some researchers say the rate may have even declined a bit. “Good news,” you might say. Keep in mind, however, the U.S. Census population indicates that the number of children under the age of 18 has grown 2.6% since the year 2000. You can do the math.Like many others, you might also say, “But that sort of thing doesn’t happen around here.” However, experts state that human trafficking among youth occurs nation-wide. More importantly for us here in the Las Vegas area, Shared Hope International, a non-profit organization combating human trafficking, recently published an extensive study of trafficking throughout the U. S. over the course of the past 10 years. Their data indicates that between the years 1994-2007, 5,122 Las Vegas youth between the ages of 12-14 were arrested for prostitution and reported that they were being managed by a pimp. The only other area in the United States that came even close to those numbers within that period of time was Kansas City, Missouri with a reported 227 cases.Here is a typical case of human trafficking. Alissa, age 16, met an older man at a convenience store in Dallas and after a few dates accepted his invitation to move in with him. But soon Alissa’s new boyfriend convinced her to be an escort for him, accompanying men on dates and having sex with them for money. He took her to an area known for street prostitution and forced her to hand over all of her earnings. He made Alissa get a tattoo of his nicknames, branding her as his property, and he posted prostitution advertisements with her picture on an Internet site. He rented hotel rooms around Dallas and forced Alissa to have sex with men who responded to the ads. The man, who kept an assault rifle in the closet of his apartment, threatened Alissa and physically assaulted her on multiple occasions. The man later pled guilty to trafficking Alissa.“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” (Is 5:7)What are the issues? What are the issues not only for law enforcement and the courts, but for us here at Grace and for other churches throughout the area; for all of us who claim to be Christians proclaiming the Good News – the Kingdom of God? Indeed, what is the Good News?First the issues: For one, we need to develop stronger community wide partnerships between law enforcement, prosecution, social services, faith communities and other organizations. We need partnerships that will drop a “the law says…,” “this is my turf…,” or “this is the way we do things…” attitude. Would you be amazed to hear that every single FBI presentation included the statement, “We need the help of the faith communities; we can’t do it without them”We need to ask ourselves the question, “How can we work together to find a new and better way of reaching these kids. How can we successfully extricate these children from their pimps and help them re-enter society; begin a healing process that will allow them to flourish in normal relationships?” How can we bring Christ to them?”How do we follow Paul’s example when he says, “…but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward in what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:14)How do we discern God’s call for us in confronting this painful social dilemma? How do we respond prayerfully and practically to that call?In order do any of that difficult but important work we need to have a long, hard look at our attitudes; our attitudes that scream out, “these kids are “troubled,” “criminals,” “prostitutes,” “liars,” and yes, “worthless.” How do we overcome our attitude that leads us to believe that these children are not our responsibility, or worse, beyond help?Now for the Good News: We need to pay Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel. Jesus Said to them "Have you never read in the scriptures: `The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’”When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. (Mt 21:44-46)The Kingdom of God will not go to those who reject Christ and his message of salvation – it will not go to those who demean and destroy lives. The Good News is that the Kingdom of God will go to “a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” The Kingdom of God will go to the Christian Church and its practice of righteousness – its participation in justice – social justice – the healing of the sick, the lonely, the outcast – its efforts to embrace all those who have lost their way.The Good News is that we are being called to respond to a national crisis and we have the tools to do the job.We have the opportunity to improve our current system of response to these young people who are currently arrested, placed in detention for three to five days, and then, more often than not, released back onto the streets – back to their pimp, or some other pimp who has “bought” them.In response to Isaiah’s lament:“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” (Is 5:7)We pray:Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted. (Psalm 80:14)

But I worked harder!

2011-09-17T08:07:00.001-07:00

SermonSeptember 18, 2011But I Worked Harder; I Should Get More!Matthew 20:1-16Two weeks ago a small group here at Grace in the Desert embarked on a year-long course of study called Kerygma. Kerygma is well-known curriculum used in many Christian formation study groups throughout the country. It is an intensive historical, theological and experiential look at both the Old and the New Testaments. Kerygma is the Greek word used in the New Testament for preaching. It is related to the Greek verb kērússō, to cry or proclaim as a herald, and means proclamation, announcement, or preaching.Paul described Kerygma quite succinctly in his Letter to the Romans when he wrote, “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!’”The New Testament teaches us that Jesus launched his public ministry when he entered the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah the prophet. He identified himself as the one Isaiah predicted in Isa 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (Luke 4:17-21). This text is a programmatic statement of Jesus’ ministry to preach or proclaim Kerygma, good news to the poor, the blind, and the captiveMark in his gospel begins with the words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.” In other words, Jesus proclaimed the Good News; Mark, and others taught or wrote about the Good News.Our study of Kerygma is our study of good news. The Good News proclaimed by Jesus as he traveled throughout Galilee and Judea proclaiming and healing. The Good News reported in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; the history of Acts; the Letters of Paul; and the apocalypse of Revelation.Today’s Gospel tells us of good news in a rather roundabout way. It is hidden in a story that describes a master and his methods of employing day laborers. Throughout the day the master goes out into the marketplace and hires those who show up looking for work. Some laborers come early in the day and others at later times throughout the remainder of the day. No matter what time workers showed up and no matter how many hours a day they actually worked, the master paid them all the same amount of money at the end of the day.Those who worked for 12 hours earned exactly the same as those who worked for only two or three hours.Understandably, you might ask where is the good news in that story? What’s so good about those who work hardest and longest getting the same amount of pay as those who hardly work at all?Faced with similar situations wouldn’t we sit back and say, “Oh wow, good news, I work hard every day writing reports and pleasing customers and some guy who just sits around and plays video games in-between coffee breaks gets paid just the same amount as I do. That’s not fair.”Sound familiar? Where in this apparently unjust situation is the Good News?The Good News in both these examples is that God doesn’t care how hard or how many hours we work. Working hard is not the way to win points with God.What God does care about is how faithful we are. He cares about how we receive Christ into our lives. He cares about how we continually grow in our faith through repentance and prayer. He cares about how we proclaim our faith in all areas of our lives. And, finally he cares about how we heal others through manifesting the Christ in us, and reaching out with care and compassion to those who have never heard the Good News and to those who may have forgotten about it. As Paul said, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the Good News.” The Good News is that the reward that we receive for our faith is the grace of God, a place in his Eternal Kingdom both here and in heaven, and the peace that passes all understanding. We receive these rewards in exactly the same way and same amount regardless of whether we are rich or poor; whether we work eight hours a day or only two hours a day; whether we have developed our faith early in life or late in life; whether we are White, Black, Asian, Native-American, or any other ethnicity. The Good News is not just for those of us here at Grace in the Desert, and it certainly is not just for us Episcopalians. It is for everyone throughout the world who holds Christ in their heart and soul; who manifests Christ in their lives. The grace that God bestows on those who have faith is exactly the same for each and every person. No one gets more; no one gets less. There is plenty for everyone. The question then becomes not “how much will I get,” but rather, “do I take advantage of how much I have?”The Landowner summed it up when he said, “Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am too generous? So that last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matt 20:14-16)God is generous, and He has chosen to give us all the same amount of grace – each and every one of us, and that grace has nothing to do with how hard we work – not at all.This is a hard concept to grasp for many of us here in America where materials goods are coveted; prestigious titles sought and envied; beautiful faces and bodies favored; and “money talks.”Living in our highly competitive and largely materialistic world I would bet that it rarely enters our minds that in God’s eyes we are all the same. More importantly, I am quite certain it is not the normal course of events for us to remember that God expects us to see that everyone is the same in terms of the grace that God has bestowed on them. How easy it is to discriminate against the homeless; to judge the unemployed; to mock the physically and mentally challenged; to forget the sick and the lonely; to run from those in need; to dismiss the disenfranchised.How easy it is for all of us – all of us. But to follow Christ is to remember that “the last will be first and the first be last.”That gets me back to Kerygma. Kerygma is foundational to our faith; Kerygma is essential to our formation as Christians; essential in our theological and personal understanding of Scripture if we are to live with Christ as the center of our being. Our communal study of Kerygma enriches the faith of our community and of our individual members. It encourages us to take our faith into the world to proclaim and heal.In the First Letter of Peter there is a section that has the heading, “A Call to Holy Living.” It reads, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly held in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”1 Peter 1:13-16This week I encourage you to seek the Good News in yourself and in your life. At your most difficult moments, open your hearts and minds to God’s grace and let the knowledge of your place in His eternal Kingdom both in the here and now and for ever and ever heal your anger, your frustration, or your pain and fill you with peace. Then, once you are settled, share your Good News experience with someone else - be holy and let your feet be beautiful.

Put on Shoes...

2011-06-25T06:48:00.001-07:00

SERMON
Put on Shoes…
Matthew 10:24-39/June 26, 2011

As I write this sermon, I am sitting on an American Airlines Boeing 737 flying from Miami to Las Vegas. Earlier this morning, I left Port au Prince, Haiti for Miami. Soon I will be home in my own bed in Pahrump, Nevada. This trip is the exact reverse of a trip that I made only 72 hours earlier, leaving my home in Pahrump for Las Vegas; and then flying from Las Vegas to Miami; and from Miami to Port au Prince.
How many miles –around 9,000. How expensive – very. Why – to be a disciple of Christ by going to provide support and caring to Haitians who continue to struggle in the aftermath of an unbelievably devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010 that was soon followed by a force 2 hurricane; a massive cholera epidemic; and a period of violent political unrest during which it was frequently too dangerous to venture into the streets without fear of being kidnapped or shot.
I first went to Haiti in 1999. At that time, the extreme poverty throughout the country was grim, but the people’s eyes were bright; they had smiles on their faces; they laughed and sang and danced continually; they were filled with the Spirit – you could feel it everywhere you went. The Spirit brought love; hope; patience; compassion; and joy to the people of Haiti, despite their poverty and political turmoil. Despite massive challenges, life was filled with the gifts of the Spirit.
In 1999, I left Haiti with a song in my heart, inspired by the many, many joyful, creative, and deeply spiritual people that I had encountered; spoken with; eaten with; and worshipped with. We had shared the Spirit in a most glorious way.
Today, in Haiti, the people’s eyes are not bright – rather they stare vacantly into space. Smiles no longer grace the faces of these beautiful men, women and children. Rather, grim, frozen faces are set towards the immediate task of sustaining life at that moment in time. Today there is no laughing; no singing; no dancing. The Spirit is not visible in the faces of Haiti today.
On June20, 2011, I leave Haiti with a heavy heart. I have seen a people, once proud and resilient, compassionate and caring; fun loving and immensely talented in so many areas, now defeated and living amid ruins and poverty that are truly overwhelming even to those of us well versed in tragedy and pain.
As before, on my other trips, we spoke together, ate together, and worshipped together. However, this time, the Spirit seemed only vaguely present, as if through a thinly veiled memory rather than a real presence in the moment.
The ruins that once were Haiti are ever present in these people’s lives. At least a quarter of a million people were killed with at least another quarter of a million living in tents and tin shacks. Collapsed buildings line most streets; roads have turned to rubble and dust; garbage is piled high everywhere with pigs routing and goats grazing for their daily sustenance; water mains continue to break causing flooding in many areas, including the tent cities where so many infants sit at their tent door staring out into space; many people have no idea where their family members and friends have gone – are they somewhere in another tent, or are they dead?
If ever there was a human tragedy, this is it.
Today’s Gospel is all about the mission that Jesus gave his disciples – their marching orders, so to speak. Jesus tells the disciples to go out and to heal; he gives the disciples authority over unclean spirits; and, he warns the disciples that this will be no easy task. There will be hardships of all sorts; rejection, danger and even persecution.
Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come not to bring peace, but a sword.” He concludes with a sharp reminder that to be a disciple means choosing the way of the cross over the comfort of a familiar and comfortable lifestyle dedicated to love of self over love of God, by saying, “…whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who find their life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus is asking his disciples to show caring and compassion – to receive – even the lowliest, and to heal. Jesus tells his disciples that it is in caring, compassion and healing – in receiving those who are suffering, those who are in need, that they will find eternal life; the inner peace that only God can bestow both here on earth and for ever more. Jesus also makes it clear that being a disciple is not an easy job. It is a job that entails courage, leadership and all sorts of personal sacrifice.
We are the disciples of today. We are the ones who are being asked to take up the sword – to show caring and compassion – to receive even the lowliest, and to heal if we aspire to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; if we are to experience eternal life through a right relationship with God in the here and now.
There were others on my recent trip to Haiti – two nurses, a doctor, a businessman, and the Executive Director of National Episcopal Health Ministries. Only four of us were Episcopalian, but religious orientation really had nothing to do with the commitment to care and to heal that we all came away with after our brief but compelling visit.
Regardless of religious orientation, we all saw that the Spirit has been lost. It did not take an Episcopalian to figure that out. We all experienced heavy hearts, and feelings of being overwhelmed by the absolute and total destruction of a country and its people. We all mourned the loss of life, both literal and figurative, and we mourned the loss of hope for those who still live.
We all felt the need to take up the sword and to care, each with our own gifts for these brothers and sisters far less fortunate than we.
In his Letter To The Ephesians, Paul writes, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” He goes on to say, “As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace…take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all of the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
What marvelous imagery, “As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”
The future of Haiti is unknown. However, here in Nevada we have made a commitment to “take up the sword,” and “as shoes for our feet” to put on whatever will make us ready to bring caring, compassion and healing – to receive – our brothers and sisters at St. Luc’s Church and School and the Hospital Ste. Croix in Leogane, Haiti. It will take leadership and courage, it will be complex and hard work, and it will require sacrifices - that is what mission work is all about.
Today, I pray that you as well will find a mission that causes you to “take up a sword,” and “put on shoes” that will lead you to the caring and compassionate work your mission requires.
There are many “Haiti’s in this world. Las Vegas is filled with them.
Once again to quote St. Paul, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” AMEN

Eternal Life - right here; right now

2011-06-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you, but I remember exactly where I was at 6 PM on Saturday, May 21st. Does anyone else here remember where they were – does anyone even remember the reason for remembering that date?

Six PM on May 21st, 2011 was the supposed moment of “the Rapture.” The moment in time when the world would come to an end and we would all be swept up into heaven to meet God. At least those us who were worthy would have been swept to heaven. No one was quite sure what would happen to the unworthy – whatever that means – but, certainly it seemed as if that group could not look forward to a positive outcome.

At exactly 6 PM on Saturday, May 21st, I was at an altitude of about 32,000 feet in a Southwest jet flying from San Francisco to Las Vegas. I was supposed to have been on this plane about five hours earlier – but that is a different story altogether. Suffice it to say that all 120 of the passengers, myself included, were frustrated, exhausted, and definitely numb – very, very numb.

As we dozed, or gazed at words on a page of some magazine or book we had retrieved from the crowded space where our feet were supposed to be comfortably resting, but were instead crammed sideways on top of the luggage that our reading material was in, a man cried out – “It’s 6 ‘o clock – it’s time for the Rapture!”

A few people turned to look at this informative gentleman. A few people chuckled, without even turning their heads. However, the majority of the passengers continued to stare into space or at their reading material – who knows what their thoughts might have been.

I thought to myself, if anyone is going to get “carried up” certainly it will be us. After all, we are already at 32,000 feet. We are already half-way there!

Well, as we all know, there was no rapture on May 21st. Harold Camping, the leader of Family Radio, a main spokesperson for the Rapture occurring in our day and age, was absolutely sure it would happen on May 21st, 2011 at 6 PM – but, it didn’t.

Unfazed by his miscalculation, the very next day Mr. Camping quickly announced that due to a mathematical miscalculation, he had been wrong. He stated that the date for the Rapture now had been extended – the new date: October 2011.

Of course, Mr. Camping first predicted that this momentous event would occur way back in 1994, so if you’re looking for a solid date here, Mr. Camping may not be your best resource at this point in time.
Where did the concept of the rapture come from anyway? What is the Rapture really all about?
The concept of the Rapture comes from something called Christian Eschatology. Christian eschatology is the study of the end of things - the end of an individual life, the end of an age, or the end of the present world and the beginning of the World to Come.
Christian eschatology is concerned with the return of Jesus – the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead. The Rapture, or the Last Judgment, signals a new heaven and a new earth, and the ultimate consummation of all of God's purposes.
Eschatological passages are found in many places throughout Scripture, especially in Isaiah, Daniel, the Gospel of Matthew, the Pauline epistles, and the Book of Revelation.
One rapture passage that we are all quite familiar with is found in Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. “(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
In this very graphic passage Paul describes the essence – the very concrete essence - of the Rapture as envisioned by Harold Camping. “Then we who are alive…will be caught up in the clouds…to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.”
But did Paul actually mean to be so concrete? Will we really be caught up in the air and fly to heaven accompanied by archangels?
And what does the Rapture have to do with today’s Gospel passage from John – a passage frequently referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer?
With regard to Paul and the Rapture, a thorough study of Paul’s writings indicates that he probably was not speaking concretely when he wrote this passage to his community in Thessalonica. (By the way this particular letter was probably written sometime between 50 and 52. Just 20 years after the crucifixion and well before any of the Gospels.) Paul’s intention in this letter, as in his other letters, was most probably to have his words interpreted spiritually and metaphorically.
In fact, Paul actually instructs us in how to interpret his writings in 1 Corinthians when he says, “we (meaning Paul himself) speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught us by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
So, in speaking of those who “sleep” or are “dead,” Paul is actually referring to people who are spiritually dead.
In his Letter to the Romans, Paul explained that some of these “dead” people were raised from their spiritual deadness when they awoke to the fact that the promises contained in their scriptures had indeed been fulfilled and that Jesus was truly the Messiah. He told the Christians of Rome to start acting like they were alive. He wrote: “yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead.” (Romans 13:11)
In the same way Paul tells us that when he woke up to the fact that Jesus truly was from God - that Jesus truly was the Messiah, he – Paul - awoke spiritually. At this moment of conversion, Paul was “raptured.” However, Paul’s being “raptured,” or his being “caught up” into heaven while he was still physically alive was a spiritual and not a literal event. Paul’s rapture symbolized his awakening to the inner spiritual realities of what it means to have faith in the resurrection - in Christ.
In his letters, Paul is telling us that it is time to “wake up,” to join the living who already live and move and have their being through God in that reality.
Now, to today’s Gospel and Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. The prayer is offered by Jesus at the conclusion of his farewell dinner. Jesus is preparing to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is also offering prayers of intercession for his disciples and for future believers. Jesus begins his prayer with:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” (John 17:1-2)
He concludes with the petition:

“I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours…And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:9-11)

Jesus is praying for all who have been given to him by the Father – all of his followers. He prays that they may have eternal life…that they may be one with God just as Jesus is one with God, both on earth and in Heaven.

He prays that his disciples will have the strength and the courage to continue his work after he has died. He prays that his disciples will serve as witnesses of God’s saving grace to those in this the chaotic world who have no faith. He prays that through this witness, through this “disciple-work,” the world might be saved and experience eternal life.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Jesus, like Paul, is not speaking concretely – he is speaking metaphorically. When Jesus talks about eternal life, he is not referring to the length of one’s lifespan; he is referring one’s relationship with God.

Jesus is telling us that eternal life does not begin when we go to heaven – it is not the rapture envisioned by Harold Camping. Eternal life is the spiritual awakening that comes when we enter – in this life, not the next -into relationship with God through our belief in Christ’s resurrection – when we participate in the Easter glory - when we acknowledge our salvation through God’s grace in the gift of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Eternal life as Jesus understood it – and, as Paul understood it – is living at peace (shalom) with one’s self and one’s neighbor. A peace solidly rooted in our relationship with God and in our work as God’s witness in bringing that peace to our neighbor.

It is for that eternal life – that peace at the very core of our being, and through our work, at the very core of the world – that Jesus prays.

No, Mr. Camping – no rapture needed here – not in October 2011, or at any other time. No, thank you. We have Easter and we have eternal life right here, right now, and for ever and evermore. AMEN.

I Am The Gate

2011-05-19T06:12:00.001-07:00

I Am The Gate - John 10:1-10

May 15, 2011

“So again Jesus said to them. “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:7-10)

When I saw that this was the Gospel reading for today, I had to smile. I had to smile because instantly I remembered an incident that occurred early on during my recent pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey. An incident that prompted me to feel the presence of Christ in and around me, and caused me to see, in a new way, the shepherd path that Jesus walked for us all. The shepherd path that Christ expects us to walk.

It was late afternoon; the sun was setting. We were all completely exhausted after having driven about 250 miles over the past nine hours. During this time we also visited four ancient, historic sites, one of which had over 150 steps to ascend and, of course, 150 steps to descend.

Our little pilgrim group had just completed a tour of the fourth and final site of the day, the Roussanou monastery in Meteroes, Greece. The monastery, built in 1517, is now a convent for Greek Orthodox nuns. It is situated way up on the pinnacle of a vast and absolutely exquisite mountain range.

At the conclusion of our tour, we literally stumbled onto the bus. We were finally on our way to the hotel designated for that night’s stay. Everyone was looking forward to a glass of wine, some supper and bed.

As our bus rolled quietly down the mountainside, I saw a dog trotting toward a gate near the side of the road. Then, a flock of about 30 sheep began slowly, one by one, to come up over the crest of a steep hill. Finally, following the dog and the last of the sheep, was the shepherd with his crook. He looked completely exhausted. We all saw him at the same time. Some of us said, “Oh look, there’s the shepherd – he looks so tired.” Then we forget about him as we dozed off, chatted, and/or simply watched the mountains roll by.

Back at the hotel, we had a pre-dinner Eucharist. As the deacon of the Eucharist, I read the evening’s Gospel lesson that included the following passage:
“So he told them this parable: ‘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? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:3-7)
Afterward, as we sat around the dinner table, all we could talk about was the shepherd that we had seen as we drove away from the monastery. We reflected collectively on our thoughts of seeing this exhausted servant faithfully guiding his flock to the safety of the gate of their pen, where all would spend the night together. We collectively and viscerally experienced in a new way what Jesus was trying to convey to his disciples when he said, “I am the gate…”

We felt in our bodies and in our souls the exhaustion that a shepherd feels – the reality of being a shepherd. We sensed the challenges, the hardships, the loneliness and aloneness of being the only one to tend even a small flock, much less all of God’s children.

We discussed how difficult the journey to the cross must have been for Jesus.

We saw with new eyes, heard with new ears, and understood with new hearts the difference between false gods and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

We felt the presence of Christ there at the table with us. It was a stunning moment. A moment that I am sure none of us will ever forget. We had met our shepherd. We understood the gate.

John is the Gospel of the “I am” statements – “I am the bread of life” (6:35); I am the living bread” (6:51); “I am the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5); I am God’s son” (10:36; “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6); “I am the true vine” (15:1).

Through metaphor and through works, in John’s Gospel Jesus shows us “the way.” He urges us to differentiate between the futility of seeking happiness by grasping at the promises made by we might today call “false gods” such as wealth, fame, instant cures for whatever ails us and the benefit of living a life of Christian discipleship – following Jesus – in order to truly live life – a life not necessarily free of pain and suffering, but a life filled with an abundance of peace – a life that promotes a society filled with ears that hear, eyes that see, and hearts that comprehend.

“Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.” (John 10:7)
Soon after returning from my two-week pilgrimage, I read “Journey to the Common Good” by the well known biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann. In this brief three-chapter book Brueggemann discusses ways in which Scripture can affect the faith and life and practice of our modern-day church as we journey together toward the common good that God wills for the world – as we continue Jesus’ shepherd work in our church, in our community, and in the world.
Very briefly, Brueggemann believes that we are currently experiencing a crisis of the “common good.” In his analysis of this crisis he uses the Exodus narrative as the text that contains the memory of the way in which ancient Israel moved from Pharaoh’s slave labor to the holy mountain of Sinai and their covenant with Yaweh (God). This narrative sets the stage for a repetitive series of journeys seeking the “common good.”
Briefly, slavery in the Old Testament occurs initially because Joseph, the Israelite, created a food monopoly for Pharaoh. Subsequently, the peasants having less and less food of their own, came to Joseph, now a high-ranking Egyptian official, and over a brief period of time gave him their money, their land, and finally themselves to ensure that they would have enough food.
“So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh…As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.” (Gen 47:20-21)
Pharaoh’s only interest was in manipulating the economy in order to concentrate massive wealth and power under the roof of the royal family at the expense of the community – or, the “common good.” By the end of the book of Genesis, we read of a deteriorated social system consisting of Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s family, the elite guard, and the state slaves who submit to slavery in order to receive food from the state monopoly.

In the first five chapters of Exodus we learn that Pharaoh has become more and more aggressive and abusive to his workforce. He is driven by anxiety over the possibility of losing his power and wealth – his food monopoly. Finally, the abused laborers can stand it no more; they cry out – they cry out publically and God hears their cries.

“Out of the slavery their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.” (Exod 2:23b-25)

The human cry of the slaves evoked a divine resolve:

“The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…“ (Exod 3:7-8)

The divine resolve then turns into what Brueggemann calls human agency – Moses is ordered by God “to bring my people out of Egypt.” With Moses leading them, the slaves watched the Red Sea waters open for them as they departed the Pharaoh’s anxiety system and stepped into the wilderness. Once in the wilderness, however, they began to complain about their new life based on risky faith and yearned to return to the ways of slavery and guaranteed food. The situation was tense.

Finally Moses complained to God, and God responded to the complaint.

“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites: say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread’; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” (Exod 16:12)

Manna - the Bread of Heaven – grace in the wilderness given in the palpable form of bread. The bread in the wilderness was a divine gesture of enormous grace and abundance; grace and abundance – God’s response to human need.

Brueggemann’s overall point is that the fear of scarcity, of losing power and wealth, nullifies the grace and abundance of God. The pursuit of “more” can never be satisfied. If we are to be truly “satisfied” we must be guided by the summons that follows from the assurance of generosity.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their ways, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isa 55:6-7)

In today’s torn and troubled world, we are the “human agency;” we are the “shepherd”; we are the “gate” through which the Lord may be found. Through our baptismal covenant we are the human agency anointed by Christ with the Holy Spirit to go forth and lead our communities through today’s troubled waters from Pharaoh’s world of anxiety and slavery to God’s world of grace and abundance.

I want to close once again using Walter Brueggemann’s words and prayers for us all.

“Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet, and more than a prophet, I argue, practiced in most radical form the main elements of prophetic ministry and imagination. On the one hand, he practiced criticism of the deathly world around him. The dismantling was fully wrought in his crucifixion, in which he himself embodied the thing dismantled. On the other hand, he practiced the energizing of the new future given by God. This energizing was fully manifested in his resurrection, in which he embodied the new future given by God.”
(Brueggemann, Walter. 2001. The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd Ed. Minneapolis. Fortress Press. p.116)
Prayer:
Lord, grant us the courage to die to our complacent and numb selves so that we can be reborn and re-energized by the new future given by God. AMEN

Whoever Serves Me Must Follow Me

2011-04-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

After he washed their feet, had put on his robe and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Lord and Teacher – and you are right for that is what I am. So if I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 16-17)
A number of years ago, I attended a Maundy Thursday service in one of the largest Episcopal cathedrals in the United States. It was a huge, gothic structure with an enormous sanctuary that held multiple religious objects including , of course, a large free-standing altar covered with a full Jacobean frontal – a massive red silk brocade piece with a gold thread design emblazoning the center of this magnificent altar decoration.
The various seats and areas for kneeling were decorated with needlepoint covered cushions; prayer books and hymnals abounded, as did beautiful linens and multiple silver chalices and crystal flagons and cruets. The sanctuary also held a 32 member choir and 60 rank organ along with the music director/organist and a harpist. The east wall was dominated by three massive stained glass panels.
There was no foot washing ceremony at this service, but as the Eucharist drew to a close the many lanterns scattered around the church dimmed. The choir began to chant Psalm 22, and ever so slowly the priests, deacons, chalice bearers and acolytes began to “strip” the altar.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.”
Chalices and other vessels were reverently handed to Altar Guild members waiting at the sanctuary door. The Fair Linen was carefully folded and also handed to an altar guild member. Then the frontal, the cushions, the Altar Book, the Eucharistic vessels, the prayer books and the hymnals gradually disappeared, one by one. The ceremony proceeded slowly, gracefully, and tragically. All the while the choir was singing Psalm 22 ever so quietly.
“ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?”
As the music drew to a close, altar guild members handed the clergy transparent black cloths, and the rector reverently covered first the altar cross, and then the processional cross. With the processional cross leading, the choir, the clergy, the chalice bearers and the acolytes solemnly processed out in silence. As the rector, the last in the long line of mourners, passed by the first row, members of the congregation silently exited row by row.
No words, no music; the lights so very dim that it was hard to see the person next to me.
Out into the darkness went the cross; out into the darkness went the clergy; out into the darkness went the congregation – out into the darkness we all went, following Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemene.
I was not alone as I shed tears and felt a painful emptiness my heart; an emptiness that I had never experienced before. I was not alone when I thought, “Christ is gone; there is no Christ – what will I do?
I believe that this sense of desolation and loss is felt by all of us each Maundy Thursday evening as we re-experience the heart-wrenching moment that confirms the reality that Jesus will be betrayed; he will be scorned; he will be tortured; he will suffer agonizing pain; he will be crucified; he will die.
Our sense of desolation comes when, as we follow Jesus into the darkness of the Garden, we believe that we also are entering the darkness; we sense that we also are going to our death – our spiritual emptiness.
We believe that we are entering the darkness. But, in reality if we have truly heard Jesus’ words; truly paid attention to his teachings; truly followed his astounding journey from his birth to his baptism in the River Jordon to his betrayal in the garden – if we have paid attention, we know, in fact, that we headed for the Light.
As Paul so eloquently says in Ephesians 2,
“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God is prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:4-10)
This evening, Jesus’ task on this earth is finished. In a few short hours, he will depart this earth to become one with the Father. And we, if we have heard his message; have received him into our heart; have been truly baptized by his Spirit, will follow him into the darkness of the garden, through the agony of the crucifixion, and into the Light of the Resurrection and our salvation.
And what then? What is salvation? What does it mean to be saved – what does salvation mandate?
In John 12, Jesus tells his disciples, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will be my servant also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
Our Salvation - our Light –Jesus tells us, is made manifest through being the good servant; through moving in and through and with God in our lives, following the Way of his Son. Our salvation is made manifest in following the direction that Jesus has given us this evening when he said,
“So if I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
As we follow Christ into the Garden of Gethsemane, we follow him into the light of his Father’s Kingdom by loving and serving Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our humble lives here on earth.
If, in some small way, we can accomplish this task of serving one another as Jesus has served us - our call from Jesus - we will come to truly know the peace that passes all understanding; we will understand the meaning of our salvation; we will be true participants in the glory of the Easter resurrection – the life everlasting.
Just a few short months ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus. Tonight we follow him on the first steps towards his death – and, believe it or not, the star that lights the way, shines more brightly than ever,
A stable-lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.
This child through David’s city
Shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
Though heavy, dull, and dumb,
And lie within the roadway
To pave his kingdom come.
Yet he shall be forsaken,
And yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
For stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead,
God’s love refused again.
But now, as at the ending,
The low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
In praises of the child
By whose descent among us
The worlds are reconciled

AMEN

The Journeys of Paul Through Greece and Rome

2011-04-11T16:36:00.001-07:00

The Journeys of Paul Through Greece and Rome

Of this Gospel I have become a servant according to God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Eph. 3:7-10)

It is hard to believe that it was two brief weeks ago to the day that I left Nevada and traveled to Miami, Florida to join a Lenten pilgrimage of 20 people. Together with our leader and shepherd, the Rev. William “Chip” Stokes, rector of St. Paul’s, Delray Beach, and his wife Susan, we were headed for Greece and Turkey to follow Paul’s journeys through those two ancient cultures.

My preparations for the trip, both at work and at home, had been massive. Concerns about safety and other travel-related matters kept me awake for more than a few nights. Butterflies filled my stomach as I waited to meet my unknown traveling companions at the Miami Airport Lufthansa ticketing gate on Sunday, March 27.

How would this trek through two unknown countries, with essentially unknown pilgrims from Florida, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nevada – yes, there were two of us Nevadans: myself and Patsy Pumphrey from Trinity, Reno - unfold?

After a grueling nine and one-half hour overnight flight from Miami to Frankfort, Germany, a mad dash through an airport that would confuse even the best of scholars, and a brief one-hour flight to Athens, Greece, we de-planed and finally began the meat of our trip on board a massive touring coach with an absolutely incredibly spiritual and well-informed guide – Sophia.

Staying in a different hotel each night throughout this two-week pilgrimage, the Greek portion of our journey began in Corinth where we stood on the platform that Paul is thought to have preached from, and wandered through the ruins of Corinth’s very large agora, (marketplace). We visited one of the tiny stone shops in the agora that scholars believe was the site of the tent-making business established by Paul during his stay in that city. Many of us felt Paul’s presence strongly as we wandered among the ruins of this ancient Greek site

In the days that followed, we visited Thebes; Delphi; Meteores; Kalambaka, where we toured two incredibly beautiful Greek Orthodox monasteries high atop ancient mountains; Veria, Pella; Thessaloniki; the Prayer Point where Paul baptized Lydia; and Phillipi, where Paul first preached the Gospel to Europe.

After that, it was off to the Greek border where we were met by our Turkish guide, Ali, in an enormous Mercedes touring bus. Ali assured us that we were his personal guests as he welcomed us on behalf of his family and his countrymen. He remained true to his promise during our five days in Turkey.

The nine hour days in Greece had been grueling; but, the 10-11 hour days in Turkey were at times endured with faith and courage only. Knees and legs were quickly giving away as we, non-stop, climbed step after step and walked only on cobblestones and marble amid restored ruins that were both massive and magnificent.

Our brains became increasingly fuzzy as we toured the First World War Battlefields of Gallipoli; the ancient city of Troy; Pergamom, where the first Christian was put to death; and Theratyra, where the remains of two of the Seven Churches of Revelation are located. Then on to Smyrna; Sardis; the Temple of Artemis; Laodicea; Philadelphia; and the Travertines at Hierapolis, where Cleopatra, seeking to reclaim her beauty, once swam in one of the natural pools in this massive Ancient Roman city high atop a pastoral mountain-top dotted by sheep, cattle, chickens, and goats grazing peacefully as their shepherds watch over them.

Finally, we came to the massive ancient city of Ephesus. Our walk through only a small part of this magnificently restored Greek and Roman city took well over two hours – we could have gone on for several days and still not seen everything. The sophistication, intelligence and power of the Ancient World are nowhere more evident than in this enormous area that once was home to over 250,000 people.

The last day of our journey was spent in Istanbul where we visited the Blue Mosque; Hagia Sophia (where From Russia with Love was filmed); Topkapi Palace (where Topkapi was filmed); and, of course, the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar – with over four thousand shops and many excellent salesmen. Our pilgrims spent the afternoon buying rugs, jewelry, spices, and multiple beautifully colored pashminas.

Each day we celebrated both Morning Prayer (on the bus) and a Eucharist Service (frequently among the ruins). We read the letters from Revelation as we visited each of the Seven Churches. We celebrated Chip and Susan’s 35th wedding anniversary. We tended to and prayed over various travel-related maladies and one fall. We gave courage and support to several people who simply could not walk another step. We laughed, we chattered non-stop, we prayed together – a strong pilgrim community was formed.

In periodic group discussions, everyone had time to reflect on what the day or the journey meant for them. Everyone was moved beyond words by the courage and faith of Paul who endured rejection upon rejection and severe physical punishment, and who, in order to bring Christ to the Gentiles, simply refused to be daunted by the astounding power and sophistication of the Greek and Roman civilizations.

Without question, today, Saturday, April 9, as we sit scattered throughout the homeward bound plane on yet another tedious 10 hour flight back to Miami, nodding off and wondering what time it really is, (there is up to a ten-hour time difference between Greece and Turkey and the United States for some of us) we have a far better understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and what it takes to have the conviction and courage to be an evangelist.

Perhaps, most importantly, however, as Paul hoped, we see through the “eyes of our heart” - through new eyes - the Power of the Spirit. After following Paul, it is impossible not to believe.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of this glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the power of his great love. (Eph. 1:17-19)

The Journeys of Paul Through Greece and Rome

2011-04-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

Christmas Evangelism 2010

2010-12-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE
December 25, 2010
Luke 2:1-20

This is the very same passage from Luke that I used for my sermon last Christmas Eve at St. Martin’s in Pahrump. When I first realized that I would be preaching on this same piece if scripture once again, I looked back with interest at my thoughts of last year. I was amazed at how differently I perceived the passage this year

Last year my sermon focused on how lucky we are to have Christ in our lives, and what a waste of time it is to feel sorry for ourselves when we don’t get the gifts that we had hoped for.

This year, I am not even thinking about gifts.

This year, I am thinking of our many, many brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world who are suffering, oppressed, and exposed to illness and brutality.

I am thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who this year have become financially destitute, homeless, and who do not have much hope for a brighter future.

I am thinking of the many natural disasters that have occurred this year, and the toll that these events have taken on both our environment and our economy.

I am thinking, we need to try our very hardest to bring Luke’s birth story and all that it means to those who either have not yet heard it, or to those who need desperately to hear it again.

This year, I am thinking that we, who are lucky enough to remain, as yet, untouched by disaster, are called by Christ, more fervently than ever, to be his disciples – to seek and serve Christ in all people and to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.

This year, in composing my sermon, I prayed that I could summon the creative juices that might, in some small way, take this birth story and breathe energy into Christ’s evangelism call to all of us here at Grace in the Desert. I prayed that I might compose a sermon that would help us all hear the angel of the Lord loud and clear when he says:
“Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
When I become passionate about something, I hear what I am trying to say musically in my head. So, I decided that, today, I would use verses from hymns that we sing each year at this time to highlight Luke’s story and to inspire us in our role as God’s messengers.

Hymn #101; verse 1

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed
the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.

Mary and Joseph had travelled from Nazareth to Galilee to register for a census. The purpose of the census was to ensure that everyone was accounted for and taxed appropriately. Their journey was a long one – about 90 miles each way. Whether on foot or by donkey, it must have been a very difficult and unpleasant journey for Mary who was pregnant.

Once in Nazareth, exhausted and knowing that Mary might be about to deliver her child, the couple stopped at an inn seeking lodging. All the rooms were taken. Mary and Joseph were offered an alternative place to stay – the manger, a space normally reserved as a shelter for animals. It was in this very humble space that the birth of Christ took place.

The baby Jesus - God incarnate; Son of God; our Savior and our Redeemer - was born not in the comfort of a fancy palace or temple. His parents were given no special consideration. The innkeeper did not move an existing guest and give them a real room instead of a dirty animal shed. No grand and glorious welcome befitting a king here. No, Christ was born in the most humble of settings among the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable – among those whom he would serve, teach, and encourage to become his followers, his disciples. Ordinary people just like you and me.

Hymn #94, verses 1 & 2

While shepherds watched their flocks by night all seated on the ground,
the angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around.

“Fear not,” said he, for mighty dread has seized their troubled mind;
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind.”

Shepherds were not rich. Shepherds were not educated. Shepherds had little, if any, social standing. Yet, God chose them to be the first to learn of Christ’s birth. God revealed himself and the birth of His Son to the most ordinary of men – not to kings or emperors.

Imagine these tired and dirty men out in a dark field, perhaps cold and hungry, minding their own business and tending their sheep when all of a sudden an angel appears before them – an angel in a cloud of glory! They were terrified!

But the angel said, “Fear not.” And then, miraculously, “The glory of the Lord shone around them.”

Somehow the shepherds understood the grace that had befallen them. They heard God. They listened intently and in awe as the angel said, “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

Hymn #83, verse 1

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him, born the King of Angels;
O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

The sheep were forgotten. The shepherds knew in their hearts that they had to see for themselves this miraculous “Thing that had taken place.” They dropped everything, including their livelihood – the sheep – and hurried off to Bethlehem.

These shepherds foreshadowed all those men and women who in the coming years would lay down their worldly goods and gifts to follow Christ – the fishermen, the tax collector, and all the saints who have given their lives to proclaim the Good News of Christ.

As Jesus said to the man who was asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21)

Once we have seen the glory of the Lord, there is no hesitation, no concern for what others may think or what the consequences of our commitment to Christ might be - no hesitation at all - we simply love, or adore, him with all our hearts, and all our minds, and all our souls.

Hymn #88, verse 1

Sing, o sing, this blessed morn, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, God himself comes down from heaven.
Sing, O sing, this blessed morn, Jesus Christ today is born.

The shepherds were amazed at what they had been told, and what they saw when they finally arrived at the manger scene in Bethlehem. These very ordinary people served as witnesses to the Incarnation, just as other very ordinary people would later become witnesses to the resurrection.

Other than the angels, the shepherds were the first to proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ birth. Not CNN or Fox News, not the New York Times, not Newsweek or Time Magazine – just ordinary folks like you and me, singing praises from door-to-door.

Today, it is very ordinary people like you and me who have, once again, witnessed the birth of Christ.

As we consider in awe, just as the shepherds did over 2000 years ago, the profundity of this miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ, let us open our hearts and our minds to the wondrous gift of God made man

Let us pray that we may be so blessed that our hearts and our minds, guided by the Light of Christ, will be used as his instruments in the healing of this troubled world.

Hymn #101; verse 3

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay
close by me forever, and love me I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

We Are The Prophets of 2011

2010-12-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

“…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins…When Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took her as his wife...and he named him Jesus.” (Matt 1:20-21; 24-25)

During these final days of Advent, we are anxiously awaiting the birth of the baby Jesus. In our hearts and in our minds we hear the prophet Isaiah's words:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel, 'which means 'God is with us.”
We also hear the refrain from the well-known hymn O come! O come! Emmanuel.

O come O come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel. (TH #56)

O come! O come! Emmanuel. A plea for the predictions of the prophets to be realized. A plea for God to be with us. A plea for Jesus to be born. A plea for God to save us.

Throughout Advent, as we await the birth of Jesus, we are encouraged through prayer, meditation, discussion, and communal worship to prepare – to be ready for Jesus' coming anew into our lives.

We are also encouraged - sometimes in great detail – to refrain from falling into the commercialism of the season. For instance, how many times have you heard the phrase, “Christmas has lost its meaning – it just all about buy, buy, buy these days.”

We are encouraged to prepare, and we are instructed how not to prepare, but are we guided in what we are preparing for? Do we think seriously about what Christmas – the birth of Jesus - means for us, right here in Nevada, in the year 2010?

I don’t think we do.

Of course, we all think of Christmas as the time of Jesus' birth – his coming into the world to save us. However, I am not at all certain that we consider the fact that Jesus has already come. That Jesus' first coming – his actual birth - occurred over two thousand years ago.

During our Advent preparations, how often do we think about the fact that through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus so many years ago, we have already been given the grace of redemption? How often do we remember that the longed for Emmanuel has already come? The blessing of God's grace is already with us. God is with us - now.

These days, as we prepare for the birth of Jesus, we are not the ancient people of Israel awaiting the prophesy of Isaiah, or Hosea, or Joel to be fulfilled. We are not Joseph being told by the angel of the Lord to await a child who shall be named Jesus and who will save his people. We are not a bewildered young man acting on faith and obediently taking Mary for his wife.

Unlike Joseph in today's Gospel reading, we are not awaiting and preparing for the unknown.

Rather, this Advent season we are awaiting and preparing for the arrival of the known - the wonder of the gift of the Christ child.

This Christmas eve, we will, once again, witness the arrival of God incarnate - God made man – the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. This Christmas, we will, once again, begin our journey – a journey we know all too well - to Jerusalem as we follow the Son of God through his ministry.

Finally, next spring, we will, once again, in grief, stand by as our Savior is betrayed, tried, and crucified. Finally, on Easter morning, we will, once again, proclaim the glory of Christ's resurrection as we sing together:

“He is risen! He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice:
He has burst His three days' prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
Death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.”

This Advent season our preparations should be centered not on waiting for the unknown - for the prophesy of Isaiah to be fulfilled. Rather, we should be centered on the known – the gift of Christ in our lives.

We should be considering our role as prophets – the Isaiahs of 2011 – as we, once again, receive the gift of Christ, and continue to spread the Good News that Christ is with us; death is conquered; we are free.

This coming year as we journey beside Jesus from his birth to his resurrection, it is we who have a responsibility to proclaim the message of redemption though our lives and through our words. Prophets do still exist – we are those prophets.

In today’s Gospel, Joseph is told to how to prepare for the birth of Mary's child by an angel. God sent the angel to prepare Joseph by instructing him to go ahead and take Mary as his wife, despite the fact that she was pregnant and no one knew by whom. And, God’s messenger instructed Joseph to name the child, Jesus.

Later in Luke's story, the angel will instruct Joseph to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt to escape King Herod's wrath.

Finally, the angel will inform Joseph that Herod has died and he must return to Israel.

In all cases, Joseph obeyed the angel. Joseph was silently obedient. Joseph ensured the safe arrival of the Christ child; Joseph named him Jesus; Joseph kept him safe.

Joseph obeyed God's commands without question and without hesitation.

I believe that the same is expected of us. As we prepare, yet again, for the birth of the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve, the preparations that we must make are similar to those made by Joseph so many years ago. We must prepare ourselves to obey Christ's commands without question and without hesitation.

This Advent season, we hear not an angel of the Lord, but Jesus himself.

We remember him as Luke describes him: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)

We hear him when he said to his followers:

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

We hear him as he spoke his final words to us:

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:17-20)

This Advent season we should be preparing to receive the gift of the Christ child
with joy and the commitment to set our face to Jerusalem as we take up our cross
and go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and remembering that Christ is with us
always.

Amen.

I Am The Bread of Life

2010-11-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

SERMON
Thanksgiving Day - 2010
The Bread of Life (John 6:24-35)
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”(John 6:35)
A week or so ago, I left work a bit early with the intention of buying my husband, Devin, a birthday present. As usual, I had waited until the very last moment; time had definitely run out – his birthday was the following day.
All in all, it had been a good day at work. No crises, no bad news, no staff problems – no stress. The weather was beautiful, the store not crowded, and I found exactly what I was looking for. Perfect! Devin would have a happy birthday; complete with the present that I knew he had been hoping for.
I distinctly remember walking out to my car and thinking, “Wow, I feel so good – this has been a really peaceful and productive day.”
I got into my car and started to drive out of the parking lot. On the curb, between the parking lot and the road that I was about to enter, stood a man a – a man who looked as if he might have recently become homeless. His clothes were clearly of a good quality; he was healthy looking; but, it appeared to me that he was now sleeping without a permanent roof over his head.
As I stopped at the curb, before entering the street, he looked directly at me and waved, his eyes conveyed a sense of peace; he had a smile on his face. He was holding a cardboard, hand-painted sign that said, “God Bless You.”
In that one moment, and through that momentary single glance that we shared, I was left with a rush of thoughts and emotions that had nothing to do with Devin’s birthday; nothing to do with a good day at work, or with my own sense of well-being; nothing at all to do with me or my own little, not so important, world.
In that one moment, as I have in several other moments in my life, I saw Christ. I saw Christ, and I felt so very intensely the impact of the message that we hear from Jesus in today’s gospel reading, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The background of today’s reading is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The story in which Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and uses them to feed five thousand people – with baskets of food left over – a miracle indeed.
After that miracle, a large crowd began to follow Jesus – and Jesus accused them of following him only because he gave them food to eat. He said to them,
“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the father has set his seal.”
Instead of seeing the feeding of the five thousand as a sign of Jesus’ power and divinity, the crowds saw this incredible meal only as a way to fill their stomachs. The crowd that was pursuing Jesus was focused, as are so many crowds, and so many people, on satisfaction of their earthly needs; needs of the moment. They were not considering their less tangible needs such as salvation and the peace of eternal life that will be found in God’s Kingdom. They were not considering how these far more important needs would be met.
The crowd on the shores of Capernaum also missed a second significant message from Jesus when they asked him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
The works they were referring to were, of course, their lifelong commitment to Jewish Law, and a lifestyle that was based on obeying the Law. Laws brought down by Moses from the mountain; laws outlined in the Torah; laws which could not be broken if one expected to remain in good standing with God.
The crowd asked Jesus to identify what work they must do in order to fulfill these Holy Laws, and Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” In other words, “don’t worry about works or good deeds, just have faith in me. Your faith in me will show you the way.”
Still, the crowd did not “get it.” Completely ignoring the fact that Jesus had just turned a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish into enough food to feed five thousand people, and that he appeared to have walked on water, they asked him,

“What sign are you going to give us…?” Jesus replied, “…The bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
“I am the Bread of Life.”
What, then, is the lesson for us today, 2000 years later, living in a different world and a different culture?
Are we frequently, not unlike the crowd that followed Jesus to the shores of Capernaum, so focused on our needs of the moment that we have a hard time seeing signs of the spiritual – the Christ in our midst? In our technologically frenzied world do we fail to see wonderful things happen in our presence every day; or, being “too busy” do we choose to ignore these wonderful things – let them pass us by without looking them in the eye; without letting them enter our hearts. How many times a day do we even think about faith – or, Christ – the Bread of Life?
Martin Luther put it well when said,
“God’s wonderful works which happen daily are lightly esteemed, not because they are of no import but because they happen so constantly and without interruption. Man is used to the miracle that God rules the world and upholds all creation, and because things daily run their course, it seems insignificant, and no man thinks it worth his while to meditate upon it and to regard it as God’s wonderful work, and yet it is a greater wonder than that Christ fed five thousand men with five loaves and made wine from water.”
How many of us are guilty of taking notice only when we miss a meal, or when things go wrong? How many of us pray for “signs” that Christ really cares for us, saying, “if only you could help me with this or with that?” How many of us recognize that the bread that we pray for regularly as we recite the Lord’s Prayer is the bread of heaven; the bread that gives eternal life?
The bread of the Lord’s Prayer is not the bread in the basket on the table; it is not tomorrow’s dinner; and, it is not a favor in return for being good. It is the Bread of Life. It is Jesus; it is Christ. It is our salvation.
How many of us, despite hard times, take the time to “stop and smell the roses?” How many of us truly see and feel the many, many gifts that God, not our family, or society, has given us? How many of us are truly content to let those gifts fill our spiritual coffers – like the man who waved to me from the curb - so that when we go “without,” we are still full?
John is the Gospel in which Jesus repeatedly and clearly revealed himself to be the son of God; God incarnate; the Christ, who through his death and resurrection was the Savior of our souls. John is the Gospel of the seven powerful “I am” statements.
1. I AM the bread of life.
o John 6:35: Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
2. I AM the light of the world.
o John 8:12: When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
3. I AM the door.
o John 10:7: Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep."
4. I AM the good shepherd.
o John 10:11-14: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me...."
5. I AM the resurrection and the life.
o John 11:25: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies."
6. I AM the way, the truth and the life.
o John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
7. I AM the true vine.
o John 15:1, 5: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
As we sit around the Thanksgiving dinner table in just a little while, will we be thinking of how good or bad the meal is; how difficult some of those unwelcome but necessary family members who we see only for Thanksgiving dinner are; how much money we have to spend tomorrow at the Black Friday sales; how big our Christmas bonus will be and will it cover all those credit cards bills – or, will be thinking of the bread of the world; the light of the world; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the way the truth and the life; the true vine.
When we walk away from the Thanksgiving dinner table later this afternoon, will we have eaten the Bread of Life; will we be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Let us pray:
O Lord, we thank you for your presence in our lives; for the bread of life. Stay with us always: Give us the strength to see you and live our lives as your humble servants, now and forever. Amen

My New Spiritual Home - Grace in the Desert

2010-10-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

My journey to Grace in the Desert Episcopal Church has left me, once again, in awe of the many blessings with which God has graced my life. Each Sunday, whether I serve at the altar or sit in the pews, I am continually reminded of just how powerful God’s love can be when it is openly received from Him in community and then returned to that community through acts of kindness, compassion, and stewardship. As we work together each day – the entire congregation, all us ordained and lay – to celebrate our Lord and Savior in the study of Scripture, prayer, music, and celebration of the Holy Eucharist, I am reminded of Mary’s words in Luke 1:46-49:
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
God has truly done great things for all of us here at Grace in the Desert. He has bestowed on us many gifts; some that we may take for granted, like printed programs, music, and flowers, and others that are hard to miss, like Fr. Dale’s and Wayne’s dedicated and blessed leadership, and the astounding number of ministries that the congregation has embarked upon.
However, I do not believe that any of these gifts would exist without the ability to first receive them from God. That’s what makes Grace in the Desert so special. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has opened their heart to Christ, and has allowed the Holy Spirit to enter their soul. Our collective souls, so filled with the Spirit, then bring a life and a light to our Church that is, perhaps, the biggest gift of all.
As we approach the Advent season; as we prepare, yet again, for the coming of Christ in our lives and our souls, I pray that we will all remember that God’s gifts are for giving, and that in giving we receive the greatest gift of all – God’s love, and a peace that passes all understanding.

Our Lives as God's Stewards

2010-09-19T13:31:00.001-07:00

Sermon
Luke 16:1-13
Our Lives as God’s Stewards
9.19.2010

Today's Gospel passage from Luke is indeed complex. So complex that scholars have debated its meaning for years upon years, and continue to do so today. While several main themes have been identified, no real conclusions that pinpoint a single interpretation have been reached.
Is Jesus complimenting the dishonest steward in his self-serving scheme to reduce the debtors' burden in order to save his own skin when we read, “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly?”
Is Jesus as saying, it’s important to be shrewd and make the most of a situation – take advantage of mistakes - make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, so to speak, when we hear, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes?”
Or, do we pay attention to only the end of the passage and focus on Jesus' concluding words, “If you cannot be a good steward, a faithful steward, a just steward, you have failed to serve the Kingdom of God.”
There are so many nuances in this passage. There are also shifts in who is speaking and who is saying what.
It is not terribly clear at what point we cross over from the master commending the steward for his shrewd, but basically dishonest and unfaithful behavior to Jesus’ comments that end with, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Just where in this passage do we transition from, “it’s cool to take advantage of a situation and end up on top,” to “I will love my neighbor as myself and the Lord with all my heart, and with all my strength – I will have no other God before me?'
Well, as I said just a moment ago, there are no easy answers here. Luke leaves our collective heads spinning and wondering what it all means.
We do know, however, that in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has a great deal to say about the dangers associated with worldly goods and money. They compete with God for our affection. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that wrong attitudes about money can bring about spiritual ruin.
In all of these parables, Jesus concludes by showing us how to use our worldly gifts in Christ-like ways. Time and again we hear Jesus tell us that God gives us gifts not only to provide for our needs, but also as a way of testing us to see if we are willing to live by kingdom values.
With this in mind, I would like to suggest that for today we take what I am calling a “tri-focal” approach. Let's look at this passage from three points of view. Three points of view that progressively bring us to Jesus' concluding statement, “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
By using our tri-focals, the passage might lose its blurriness – its obscurity. By using our three lenses, we might see a theme emerge that is very relevant to our lives as Christians and as Episcopalians today: The theme of our lives as God's stewards.
First of all, the dishonest manager understands his failings and the consequences of these failings. In his brief dialogue with himself, he says, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.”
The manager is clear; he has made mistakes – he has mismanaged his master’s money. His future is ruined unless he can come up with some clever scheme to protect his income and his lifestyle.
We might simply look at this as going into survival mode. Perhaps we can't be re-employed at that high level executive position with all its perks, but the job of the boss’s secretary is still available and pays enough to cover our living costs. Something is better than nothing.
Secondly, the steward develops a clever scheme. He decides to call in the debtors, and renegotiate their deals and payment plans. The debtors will owe less; the steward will earn less – but, he will also gain in popularity with them, and keep some of his money coming in. He will continue to have people on whom he can rely for favors and assistance.
Through these two lenses it seems clear that the steward has decided that if something is not working, reassess the situation and get it going in the right direction.
This might be a good philosophy, in general. For instance, if our outreach program to attract new members isn't working, let's re-assess and get it going in the right direction.
Through the third lens, Jesus enters into the narrative and we hear him say,
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?”
With these words – through this third lens - Jesus brings this complex parable into focus. If you are not able to recognize your preoccupation with self and worldly things, and put them in a perspective that focuses on others and their needs, you are not a faithful steward of God’s Kingdom.
Our tri-focal approach takes us from acknowledging our human failures, to considering a new path for our lives, to identifying a more Christ-like way of life for ourselves - A way of life that helps, protects, and serves both self and others.
This new way of life is eloquently described by Johannes Eckhart, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic who was born in the late 1200’s, who said,
“We must learn always to find and procure the advantage of God. For God does not give gifts, nor did he ever give one, so that we might keep it and take satisfaction in it; but all were given - all he ever gave on earth or in heaven - that he might give this one more: himself. Therefore I say that we must learn to look through every gift and every event to God and never be content with the thing itself. There is no stopping place in this life - no, nor was there ever one, no matter how far away a person had gone. This above all, then, be ready at all times for the gifts of God and always for new ones.”
“Be ready for the gifts of God and always the new ones.”
God gives us gifts every day of our lives –some of them are big; some small. Some of them are wonderful to receive; some frightening; some very challenging. However, they are all gifts and they all require care – care that involves a commitment and giving of self in every way and at every level.
To sum up…
We all need to be the dishonest manager rethinking his, or her, approach to our way of living.
We all need to be Mary, listening at Christ’s feet, hearing his message, committing ourselves to our journey with him to Jerusalem and beyond.
We all need to be the Good Samaritan, loving our neighbors as ourselves, especially when no one else will offer that love to them.
We all need to accept God’s will for us to join in His passion in loving and bringing peace and justice to all; each in our own way; each through our own gifts.
Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in one of her recent homilies”
"God has given us a mission to care for our neighbors and all of creation. To do so, we must put aside our narrow self-interest to heal the hurting, fill the hungry, set the captives free, and bind up the wounds of creation. I invite you to join in that mission..."
We are God’s stewards – all of us – each and every hour of each and every day.

Our Lives as Christians

2010-08-15T15:26:00.001-07:00

Sermon
Luke 12: 49-56
Our Lives as Christians
8.15.2010
Several of my friends who are preaching today commented on the fact that today’s Gospel reading is one of their least favorites. In fact, one friend decided to ignore it altogether. Instead he will focus on the more compelling issues related to the upcoming return to school, the opening session of Church School, and parental responsibility in supporting their children both educationally and spiritually.
I wondered, “Should I also just ignore this passage and simply bring the congregation up to date on my recent trip to Haiti, my thoughts regarding the many months that I have been privileged to worship and teach at St. Martin’s, and my untold thanks for the support that all of you gave me as I journeyed through my ordination process?”
I concluded that although difficult and somewhat obscure, Jesus’ teaching in this passage has a great deal to do with everything that God has placed before me at this point in time. The central theme of the passage tells us that as Christians we should not expect our lives to be smooth sailing. Life is tough. It is a bumpy, unknown road, filled with potholes, some of which cannot be detected when recent rains have filled those potholes with water.
Life for a Christian, for an Episcopalian, is a life built on faith – a faith that Jesus has given us the ultimate gifts of salvation and eternal peace – a faith that, despite the ongoing challenges we face, allows us to believe Jesus’ words found in the Gospel of John, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)
“You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
These are tough words to hear. They can be interpreted to mean that we are far more interested in assessing our personal surroundings - economic cues; political stances; the effect of the weather on our Holiday weekend – than we are about understanding and involving ourselves in the spiritual issues of the day. Like the people in Jesus’ time, all too often we are only able “to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but do not know how to interpret the present time.”
I believe that “the present time,” is of critical importance. Whether the subject is the recent disaster in Haiti, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Judicial Killings in the Philippines, Immigration Policies, or any other of a number of compelling and urgent social justice issues, we need to understand their scope and become involved. Not with all, certainly, but we need to be involved with at least one project that we take on as something other than just being involved with ourselves, and our own world.
We, ordained and laity alike, as Episcopalians, are called to further the mission and the missionary work of the Episcopal Church not only in our own community, but throughout the world.
Involvement in any one of the many social justice issues brings a journey along a bumpy road, both literally and figuratively. When we journey into the land of mission and social justice, we journey into the unknown, we go forward in faith, we follow in Christ’s brief but difficult journey to the cross.
Let me tell you about several people whom I met this past week in Haiti – people who have most assuredly left their comfort zone and wandered into the wilderness of the unknown as they seek to bring the Good News, compassion, peace, and social justice to those who know only poverty, hunger, separation from their families, disaster, and hopelessness.
There was Mary, a young emergency room physician from Seattle, Washington, who had come to Haiti immediately after the earthquake to care for the injured. She was back in Haiti this past week to follow up on thirteen families who now live in tent cities throughout southern Haiti. She spent four days in the 100 degree heat searching through massive and very muddy tent cities just to find these 13 families and minister to them.
From Michigan, there was Susan, a family practice physician, and her husband Joe, a kindergarten teacher. This was their fourth trip to Haiti since the earthquake. Susan is teaching young mothers to care for themselves during their pregnancy and helping in the delivery of babies who need special care.
There was Mitch, a young family man from Colorado, who had just returned from Bombay, India where his organization rescues young girls who have been trafficked into the sex trade and orphans who are being neglected. He and his group spent two days in one of the poorest, dirtiest, most flooded sections of southern Haiti teaching the orphanage’s caregivers how to nurture traumatized children and arranging for ongoing food and water to be delivered to the orphanage.
There were several Haitians who had been trapped beneath the rubble for one or two days. They are now living in tents, but have returned to work, professionally dressed and productive at their job so that they can help re-build their homeland.

I am sure that you get the point – these are all people who are attempting “to interpret the present time.” Perhaps Mitch put it best when he said during a late night conversation, “Either God is in you or He isn’t. If He is in you, you are working for peace and social justice, you are not afraid. If He isn’t, you probably aren’t.”
As I sat in the airport waiting to board my flight out of Haiti, I was astounded by the number of Christian relief workers who would share my fight. Their tee-shirts identified their organizations, and I could see that they came from all over the United States. I was overcome with awe that I was among these incredible souls. I asked myself, “How could God have so blessed me that I have been given the opportunity to be among this massive and historical relief effort – so filled with compassion; so filled with open hearts; so filled with faith?”
Faith is everywhere in this destroyed country; prayer is ongoing; joyful singing praising God can be heard everywhere and every day. The massive destruction is overwhelming, but God is everywhere.
I am also amazed at the opportunity that God has graced me with in coming to Nevada and to St. Martin’s in the Desert. I see my time here as a journey into the wilderness; a wilderness in which I was called by God to ordained ministry in His church. I view you all as my friends and supporters who have accompanied me on my journey to ordination.
Now, I move on in faith – I don’t know what is around the corner, but I hear God speaking to me. He is calling me to move on to another wilderness. It is, at times, frightening, but I have faith – passionate faith – and God is in me.
Let us pray.
O gracious and loving God, you work everywhere reconciling, loving, and healing your people and your creation. In your Son and through the power of your Holy Spirit, you invite each of us to join you in your work. We, young and old, lay and ordained, ask you to form us more and more in your image and likeness, through our prayer and worship of you and through the study of your scripture, that our eyes will be fully opened to your mission in the world. Then, God, into our communities, our nation, and the world, send us to serve with Christ, taking risks to give life and hope to all people and all of your creation. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Passionate Discernment

2010-07-19T06:10:00.001-07:00

Sermon
Luke 10:38-42
Passionate Discernment
7.18.2010

Last week in the story of the Good Samaritan, we heard Jesus say to the questioning lawyers “Go and do likewise.” He was referring, of course, to the actions taken by the Good Samaritan on behalf of the beggar who had been beaten and left to suffer on the side of the mountain going down from Jerusalem.
In saying, “Go and do likewise,” Jesus was telling the lawyers that it is not good enough to simply know and quote the law” (You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself); one must also adopt the law as a way of life. Knowledge of what is right, without actually doing what is right, is useless.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus was saying, “Actions speak louder than words when it comes to loving God with all your soul, strength, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Today we hear a different message from Jesus who tells Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need for only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” In this passage, Jesus is saying, “Martha, stop doing and sit down and listen.”
Today, we hear Jesus giving priority to listening; to hearing the words that come from God’s messenger – Jesus Christ. The story of Mary and Martha does not teach us to “do,” it teaches us to listen; to discern; to seek the better thing- the miraculous ways that God speaks to us.
The stories of the Good Samaritan and Mary and Martha teach us that there is a time to take action; “to do,” and there is a time “to listen”; to reflect and discern. Knowing which course of action to take requires spiritual discernment. I believe that it also requires passion.
Passion is a very powerful test for determining authenticity. Our passion, or authenticity, has tremendous power and potential as mind, body and spirit work together to create, develop and express our feelings and ideas.
Passion is a critical component in our lives as Christians. Without passion, listening, reflecting, discerning, and doing are fairly, if not very, ineffective.

Marcus J. Borg in his recent novel “Putting Away Childish Things,” says:
“…the goal of Christian life is participating in the passion of God, as disclosed in the Bible and Jesus. God’s passion is that we center more deeply in God (‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength’) and the world – a world of justice and peace. These are the inner and outer dimensions of the Christian life and of Christian mysticism-union with God’s passion.”
I see passion for us Episcopalians as the glue that connects the listening process to the doing process. In listening we learn; in doing we carry out what we have learned. As Christians, if we do not listen and do with passion, we are not authentic. We fail to participate in the passion of God and His desire that we continue His work of reconciliation and redemption of the world – with passion.
Clearly, we do not live in Jesus’ time, and we will never meet him as we travel along the road. We will never have the opportunity to sit at his feet and listen to his stories as we entertain him as our dinner guest. We will never gain our passion by feeling the touch of his hand, or hearing the tone of his voice.
So then, what do we as residents of today’s chaotic world listen to? How do we listen? How do we understand what we have heard? How do we know what to do with what we have heard? And perhaps most important, where do we find our passion?
Let’s begin with the premise that everyone has gifts – gifts that are useful and absolutely necessary to the work of God in and through our Church. If our Church is to survive – if God is to be known in the world – we need to determine our gifts and put them to work. That is the mission that Jesus gave us.
The second premise is that the gifts we have are not the same gifts. Each of us has something different that we can offer. No one gift is better than any other gift. All gifts are precious. All gifts are needed in the life and ministry of the church.
Paul writes extensively about gifts and listening in First Corinthians:
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ..... And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.”
Many ordained clergy discern their gifts through spiritual direction. Spiritual Direction is a ministry and an art, is an ancient practice in the Christian tradition. A Spiritual Director is one who with a deep personal faith life, relevant education and training, experiences a call to companion others on their soul journey. Knowing that the Holy Spirit is the true guide, a Spiritual Director does not direct, but acts as a listening, supportive companion. The purpose of spiritual direction is to recognize and respond to the presence and action of God in one’s daily life.
You all met my spiritual director at my ordination. The Rev. Chip Stokes gave the sermon and the charge. His gift to me of spiritual direction on a regular basis is priceless.
The majority of the laity discern their gifts through the Christian Education and Christian Formation activities provided by each parish and its clergy. Formation classes, especially, those that focus on centering prayer, learning to listen, and recognizing and responding to God’s call are essential exercises for all Christians.
Whether ordained or laity, members of all congregations base their mission in Christ – their listening and their doing - in their continual journey of education, formation, prayer, discernment, and ministry.
And what about passion, where does that come from?
Johannes Eckhart, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic who was born in the late 1200’s said,
“We must learn always to find and procure the advantage of God. For God does not give gifts, nor did he ever give one, so that we might keep it and take satisfaction in it; but all were given - all he ever gave on earth or in heaven - that he might give this one more: himself. Therefore I say that we must learn to look through every gift and every event to God and never be content with the thing itself. There is no stopping place in this life - no, nor was there ever one, no matter how far away a person had gone. This above all, then, be ready at all times for the gifts of God and always for new ones.”

“This above all, then, be ready at all times for the gifts of God and always for new ones.”
We all need to be Mary, listening at Christ’s feet, hearing his message, committing ourselves to our journey with him to Jerusalem and beyond.
We all need to be the Good Samaritan, loving our neighbors as ourselves, especially when no one else will offer that love to them.
We all need to accept God’s will for us to join in His passion in loving and bringing peace and justice to all; each in our own way; each through our own gifts.
A Wayne Schwab, the first evangelism staff officer for the Episcopal Church in the United States says,
“In today’s world, the laity are, potentially, the most effective agents of God’s mission. They are in the places where the decisions that shape our common life are made – from the home to the hourly workplace to the board room to the legislature. Hence, our vision: a church where all the members see themselves as agents of Jesus’ mission to make every part of their daily lives more loving and more just; and their congregations guiding them and empowering them for mission through their common life and worship.”
Let us pray:
O gracious and loving God, you work everywhere reconciling, loving, and healing your people and your creation. In your Son and through the power of your Holy Spirit, you invite each of us to join you in your work. We, young and old, lay and ordained, ask you to form us more and more in your image and likeness, through our prayer and worship of you and through the study of your scripture, that our eyes will be fully opened to your mission in the world. Then, God, into our communities, our nation, and the world, send us to serve with Christ, taking risks to give life and hope to all people and all of your creation. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Theological Dilemma

2010-06-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

Sermon
Luke 9:51-62
A Theological Dilemma
6.27.2010

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Today's Gospel reading is filled with bits and pieces. Jesus on a journey, his face set to go to Jerusalem; his entry into a village of the Samaritans who would not receive him; his moving on to another village that would receive him; and, then a series of requests from several who expressed a desire to follow him. Requests that were rebuffed with impatient and puzzling responses.

It would seem, however, that the essence of what Jesus is saying to his potential followers in these puzzling responses is that, “My journey and the kingdom of God come before all else. Forget your dying parents; forget your family; forget your fields, your animals, and your livelihood. Nothing in your life is as important as your commitment to follow me on my journey to Jerusalem.”

“We need to keep moving on. If you cannot drop everything in your life now, right now, and follow me, you are not “fit for the kingdom of God.”

Pretty strong words – drop everything in your life now, right now, and follow me on my journey or you are not fit for the kingdom of God.

How are we to interpret these demands that fly in the face of prudence, responsibility, accountability, and just plain old common sense?

For many of us, the demands made by Jesus in this passage from Luke create a very real theological dilemma. They leave us wondering, “How can I justify leaving all responsibility behind, and still believe that I am living a Christian life? What does Jesus mean when he says I am not fit for God's Kingdom unless I abandon my family, my work, and the life that I have created for myself in order to follow him?”

The theological dilemma that Jesus presented to his followers, is not unlike many dilemmas created by the events and demands that we encounter in today's world. Events and demands that pose a deep incongruity between what we believe and what we are being asked to do. Events and demands that are frequently, for those of us who take scripture and our baptismal covenant to heart, almost impossible to resolve with true peace of mind.

Theological dilemmas – situations that cause stress and anxiety. Situations that cause us to re-examine our belief system and the comfort of the world that we have built for ourselves within that belief system. Theological dilemmas – situations that can literally make or break us.

This morning – I am going to focus on theological dilemmas; how we handle them, and how we learn from them.

What is a theological dilemma anyway?

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, a philosopher and theologian, defined the Latin equivalent of theological, theologica, as “reasoning or discussion concerning the deity.” Richard Hooker, an Anglican priest and theologian, defined theology as “the science of things divine.” Essentially, theology is the use of various forms of analysis and discussion to help understand, explain, defend and/or promote various religious beliefs and/or topics.

As Episcopalians, we develop, perhaps without knowing it, our own personal theologies. These theologies help us understand our religious tradition; they help us understand other religious traditions; and, they help us understand our religion in comparison to others. They provide the foundation for a unique and individual code of ethics that guides us in dealing with relationships and current life situations. They provide a framework for our understanding and interpretation of world situations.

Put another way, our personal theology, based on our interpretation of scripture, the traditions of our Church, and the culture in which we live, is the framework for our religious beliefs and our way of being in the world. It is the tool that we use each and every day to understand the world, and what is going on around us in the world – both environmentally and physically.

Whether we know it or not, we all have a personal theology that shapes our attitudes and behaviors, helps us negotiate life's situations, and provides us with some small understanding of what our life, and life in general, is all about.

A theological dilemma is a situation that seriously challenges our personal theology. Our personal comfort zone of the hows and whys of life is quite suddenly in direct opposition to what is being asked of us, or what is going on around us. This incongruity forces us to ask ourselves, “Are my beliefs valid, or have I been wandering down the wrong path.”

A theological dilemma frequently causes confusion, anxiety, anger, and not infrequently, a feeling of being lost and alone. The outcome of dealing with a theological dilemma can frequently cause discomfort and a disruption in a life that previously had felt calm and settled.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus causes a big theological dilemma for those who ask to follow him on his journey to Jerusalem. Jesus says to them, “Follow me and leave everything else behind.”

I am sure that you can see the dilemma that Jesus posed for both of the men who offered to follow him on his journey to Jerusalem. In Jesus' culture, children -- especially sons -- were the only social security. If you had sons, they (and their wives and children) were expected to stick around to take care of you until you died, and then to make sure you get a proper burial. According to tradition, the very least that you could do to "honor your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12) is to take care of them when they grow old and are dying.

But in today's passage, Jesus says, in effect, “you have absolutely no obligation toward an earthly father; your only obligation is to your heavenly Father.” Wow – Jesus said that?

He did. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus called people to drop their nets and their plows, leave their families and their villages, and follow him.

This demand creates a theological dilemma – how do you honor your father and mother, and do your duty toward family, neighbor, and work according to Christian tradition; and, at the same time, drop everything and follow Jesus. What does this mean? How is it to be implemented?

All of us experience theological dilemmas, in one way or another, on a daily basis. Some are quite minor and easily resolved. Others are far more difficult to negotiate. These are the situations that force us to examine our personal theologies and to spend significant time, in conversation, reflection, and prayer in our attempt to make decisions about how to proceed in resolving the dilemma.

An example might be trying to decide whether or not, after years of turmoil, to deliver a “tough love” ultimatum to an alcoholic or drug addicted child or spouse by saying, “No more. I want you out of this house immediately, and do not expect any financial bailouts from this moment forward.” This tough love move is in direct opposition to our daily efforts to follow Jesus by “seeking the Christ in all persons and loving our neighbors as ourselves.”

In making a “tough love” decision we may be forcing someone onto the streets and possibly into jail. Is this a Christian thing to do? What would God have to say about this? What would Jesus do if he were in our shoes?

Of course, there are no answers to these questions. They are just that – questions; important questions.

There are no rights or wrongs in solving our theological dilemmas. We simply do the best we can, making every effort to “follow Jesus, while tending to our personal lives as responsibly and realistically as possible.

The theologian Marcus J. Borg says,
“...questioning also serves a necessary religious function: it prevents us from thinking that there can ever be a final formulation of “the way things are.” Our words and concepts, no matter how sacred or scientific, can only point to a stupendous and wondrous Mystery beyond all language. That is their function: they are pointers, and some point better than others. Sometimes language can even mediate the Mystery, the sacred.
But none of our “tenets or traditions” can be the last word, the final word. They are creatures, creations. To think of them as absolute is to give them a status that belongs to God alone.”

Borg does not believe that the Bible can be taken literally if it is to be taken seriously. He views the Bible as a lens through which we can view the Divine. The lens helps us to see God. The Bible, therefore, becomes our mediator - a means, not an end in the formation of our personal theologies, and the way in which we live them out in our day-to-day lives.

To question; to use the Bible as a lens through which we can see the Divine; to become engaged in the practice identifying our personal theology; to grow continually and endlessly through struggling with theological dilemmas both large and small, is to hear Jesus saying, “Follow me.”

Our theological dilemmas are simply a starting point. Other questions must follow – “Where am I to follow you?” - “How am I to follow you?” - “What does following you really mean in this particular situation?”

The questions are many; the conversations with God endless; the prayers for guidance, strength, courage, and compassion unceasing. But, the goal is always the same. The goal is to be on the road, our face set to Jerusalem, following Jesus.

Justified by Faith - Trinity Sunday 2010

2010-05-29T10:20:00.001-07:00

Sermon
Justified by Faith John 16:12-15
May 30, 2010

Nine weeks ago on Easter Day, Christians across the world were proclaiming, Alleluia, the Lord is Risen. He is Risen indeed. Alleluia.

The disciples were amazed and relieved. We were amazed and relieved. The one we thought had died was risen; he was with us once again. We were not alone.

And now, today, just a few short weeks later, the Risen Christ tells his disciples that he will leave them once again. This time, he will go to heaven to be with his Father, leaving the disciples with his final gift – the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine how confused and desolate the disciples must have been? How would you have felt? Angry, resentful, abandoned? I know that I would probably have felt overwhelmed.

One minute our teacher and leader was dead and buried in a tomb; within a few short hours, vanished from that very same tomb; soon after only to be alive again and present with us; and, then, once again, gone.

To quote a friend of mine, “who would have believed???”

And, yet Jesus is asking his disciples, and us, to do exactly that – to believe.

Jesus knew his final departure would be hard for the disciples. He knew that they were very dependent on him; that they had not yet fully understood who he was, or what his message was. After all his teaching, all his good works, and despite his resurrection – the disciples still did not get it – they did not understand that he was the Son of God; their savior; their salvation. Jesus knew this.

Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear to hear them now,” fully understanding that this final departure would leave the disciples frightened and confused, wondering, “What will we do now?”

But, Jesus also knew that when he departed, the Holy Spirit would come into the lives of those who had followed him, breathing life into the message of grace and salvation that had been his mission to bring to us as the Son of God; God incarnate.

Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit, “… will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Jesus came to us as the incarnation, the embodiment in flesh, of God. He will now rise to “sit at the right hand of God” – to be one with God. He will be replaced by the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God.

Jesus was “begotten” by the Father, and the Holy Spirit will “proceed” from the Father and from the Son. The three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are One – the Holy Trinity – Holy, Holy, Holy.

That is what we are celebrating today, Trinity Sunday – the solemn day of commemoration of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus was God’s gift to us. Through his crucifixion, death and resurrection, Jesus gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christ knew God’s mission for him, and through the Holy Spirit, we are told by Christ, that we will know God’s mission for us.

Christ had faith in God, his Father. This faith called him to his ministry and gave him the courage and strength to face his death on the cross.

Christ is asking us to have faith, and to allow this faith to open our hearts to the gift of the Holy Spirit; to allow our lives to be nurtured and guided by the breath of the Holy Spirit.

Just as God breathed on Adam and gave him the breath of life, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said to them, “Peace to you! As the Father sent me, I also send you…and when he said this he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ”

The gift of the Holy Spirit– will we have the courage to recognize it and to allow it to nurture our faith and guide us through these challenging times?

This weekend we are also celebrating Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, the day of Remembrance, for those who have died in our nation’s service. Remembrance Day officially goes back to World War I. Since that time, many wars have been fought and many lives lost. One hundred sixteen, six hundred and six lives were lost in World War I; 405,399 in World War II; 33,686 in the Korean War; 58,209 in the Vietnam War; 1,083 in Afghanistan; and, 4,403 in Iraq. A total of 36,230 men and women have been either killed or wounded in the Iraq War.

These men and women went into battle with courage, perseverance, and faith. Many have written extensively about the presence of God in their lives in the most terrifying of moments in the battle field.

"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most memorable of these written accounts. It is a poem written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae written just after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer who was only 22 years old. The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried. That is how they became a symbol of Remembrance Day.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

In a verbal tribute to our military, General Douglas MacArthur in his farewell address at the West Point commencement ceremonies on May 12, 1962 said,

“In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved the soldier’s statue in the hearts of his people

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

And twenty years after, on the other side of the globe, against the filth of dirty foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of the relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropic disease, the horror of stricken areas of war.

Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory--always victory, always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of the gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following the password of Duty, Honor, Country................

Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps”
“If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

“They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.”

“Peace to you! As the Father sent me, I also send you…and when he said this he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ”

AMEN

Ordination of Clelia Garrity to the Diaconate

2010-04-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

St. Martin’s Church, Pahrump, NV
Ordination to the Sacred Order of Deacons - Clelia Garrity
Jeremiah 1:4-9; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6; Luke 12:35-38 (Propers for the Ordination of a Deacon)
Preacher; The Reverend William H. Stokes

How privileged I feel to be here and to be your preacher on this extraordinary occasion, when, in a short while, by God’s grace and with your consent, Clelia Garrity will be ordained a deacon in Christ’s one holy catholic and apostolic church. I think this day has been a long time coming. I know Clelia feels that way too.
I’ve known Clelia for nearly fifteen years and have been her spiritual director throughout this process. I can assure you she has been waiting for this moment, longing for it. For her, it is a time of fulfillment, a time for her to fulfill that which she feels to the depths of her soul. Clelia is a deacon through and through and through. She has a deacon’s heart!
Today we are giving outward expression to an inward reality which is already present; which God has planted with the soul of Clelia Garrity. That’s what a sacrament is: giving outward and visible expression to an inward invisible reality. Ordination is a sacrament.
God has given Clelia a heart of compassion. Not the kind of compassion that feels only and then doesn’t act, that is “enabling” rather than “empowering.” Oh, no, Clelia Garrity’s compassion is active compassion. Clelia sees, and Clelia does.
Clelia has served, and continues to serve, people most in need and in most desperate circumstances: the poor, the battered and the abused, and especially battered and abused children, the most vulnerable ones. She has been performing this kind of service most of her adult her....Yes, God has given Clelia the heart of a servant...God has given Clelia the heart of a Deacon.
Today, we have a holy and sacred responsibility: With our consent, by our prayers, and with Bishop Dan’s actions of laying his hands on Clelia and petitioning the Holy Spirit, by the power of that same Spirit, the outward expression will meet with the inward reality and the deed will be accomplished. We will have a new Deacon – Deacon Clelia Garrity.
Prior to responding to my own call to the priesthood (and it needs to be noted that all priests are first ordained as deacons, although there is a healthy conversation going on in the church today about whether or not we should continue this), I worked for many years in restaurants both as a bartender and a waiter. I started doing this because my wife and I had married young, very young; when I was a freshman in college. Working in restaurants allowed me to work at night and go to school during the day. I kept that up for two years. Then restaurants took over and I dropped out of college and started running restaurants. I did pretty well, running some pretty big places, mostly in New York.
After eight years of that, I got restless. I was working 6 and 7 days a week, often from 9 or 10 in the morning until 2 0r 3 the next morning. I’d go home, sleep for a few hours, get up and do it again. I had a family, including small children....What’s this about? I began to wonder to myself. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Spirit was stirring in me. I began to sense a call to the priesthood.
Eventually I responded to that call and went back and finished college and then went to seminary. I stopped running restaurants, but I still had to work, I had children to support. I started waiting tables again. I waited tables through the first year and a half of seminary.
In 1987, during my first year at General Seminary, where one of my classmates was Bishop Dan Edwards, we were required to take a course in church history called Patristics....Patristics studies the earliest history of the church; from the time immediately following the Resurrection of Jesus and the church of the first Apostles to about the 6th century. One of the first lectures of the course was on the early development of the church’s ordained ministry, the order of deacons. “The word deacon,” Professor Bob Wright said in class that day, “comes from the Greek word DIACONOS which means ‘servant’ or more specifically `humble table servant’ or ‘waiter.’”
I cannot describe to you, how overwhelmed I was at hearing that in that classroom...As I indicated, at the time, I was still waiting tables in a restaurant in New York... “The word deacon,” Professor Bob Wright said, “comes from the Greek word DIACONOS which means `servant’ `humble table servant’ or ‘waiter.’”
Yes, it was overwhelming to hear that. I was at a totally new place in my life and in my understanding...I was in a totally new place in my relationship with God but, I had come full circle. I knew what those words meant. I was entering a new servanthood, a new form of humble table service. Tears came to my eyes and I could barely hear the rest of the lecture. It was as if God had spoken to me; had affirmed my call.
Today we are gathered to ordain another person into the ranks of God’s humble table servants, God’s waiters....Another person, Clelia Garrity, has by the grace of God in her own distinct way come full circle in her life. She, too, has felt the stirring of the Spirit, which made her restless, unsettled her....And she has, in response the Spirit’s urging, presented herself to the Church; jumped through all its hoops and been found worthy to enter its servant ranks. So we rejoice in that and give thanks for it, even as we recognize the solemnity of the occasion and grapple with its implications.
In one of his Epistles, St. Clement of Rome, an early Church Father (who dates to about. 95 AD), states that the institution of deacons along with that of bishops “is the work of the Apostles themselves.”1 Therefore, the ordination which takes place today, and the ministry which we celebrate, reaches back to the very earliest life of the church. Wow!
In its earliest expressions the diaconate was clear and well-defined. There were seven deacons in Rome and in each of the large cities of the church. In a thorough treatment of the subject, the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that deacons were responsible for oversight of church funds and for the distribution of alms to the poor, the widows and the orphans....Deacons were responsible for seeking out the sick and the needy and reporting to the bishop and representing to the bishop both their condition and their necessities...They were responsible for inviting the elderly women of the church community to the Agape meal. 2
Deacons were “the guardians of order in the church.” 3 They saw that the faithful occupied their proper places, that “none gossiped or slept...They were to welcome the poor and aged and to take care that they were not at a disadvantage as to their position in the church.”4...As St. Chrysostom says in general terms: “if anyone misbehave let the deacon be summoned.” 5 I like that!
Besides all this, Deacons, “.were largely employed in the direct ministry of the altar, preparing the sacred vessels and bringing water for the ablutions....”6 Deacons read the Gospel, led the prayers of the people, and dismissed them into the world at the end of the mass...7
There are a number of other qualities of this ministry from early days, and, although they had receded into the background for many hundreds of years, the ministry of the deacon has re-surged, both in the Roman Church, and particularly in the Episcopal Church...
The Book of Common Prayer captures the essentials of this ministry, its implications and its tensions in the Examination which we shall soon hear. The Bishop will state to Clelia, “As a deacon....You are to make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among whom you live, and work, and worship. You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world. You are to assist the bishops and priests in public worship and in the ministration of God’s Word and Sacraments, and you are to carry out other duties assigned to you from time to time. At, all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless, they are serving Christ himself....” 8 Servanthood is that the heart of the diaconal ministry....In fact, servanthood is at the core of all Christian ministry.
Were you paying attention to the Gospel reading when it was read? Did it shock you? It should have. It certainly would have shocked those who heard it when Jesus spoke those words...

Jesus is speaking to a crowd....He had already been engaged in a somewhat hostile exchange with scribes and Pharisees who are lying in wait, ready to pounce on anything he says which might give them an excuse to have him arrested (cf. Luke 11:53).
Those scribes and Pharisees knew about power and privilege....They were the cream of their society....They kept the law and observed every propriety....They also knew who was who in their society. They were at the top of the social rung; everybody else, well, they should be kept in their place.....
Jesus addresses the crowd and urges them to be ready for the time when the master of the House will come (Luke 12:26) Apparently, in this short teaching, the master has been attending a wedding banquet, it’s an image for the messianic banquet, the consummation of time, when the righteous will be judged favorably and enter into the master’s heaven and when the wicked will be judged negatively and cast into the place of eternal separation from God....
“Be dressed, “ Jesus says to his listeners... “Be dressed and ready for action. Have your lamps lit....Be like those who are waiting for the Master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:35 - 36).
Now listen to this. Listen carefully! Listen to what Jesus says next, “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves! (Luke 12:37-38). The master of the house will come and fasten his belt, and then have them sit down to eat, and HE will serve them?! It’s unbelievable! It’s absurd!
But that’s what the ministry and Gospel message of Jesus is: unbelievable, outrageous, absurd! It turns the world upside down....It turns the world’s calculus and power structures upside down. The rich are poor and the poor are rich....The blind receive their sight and the lame are healed....The captives are set free, the oppressed are limited....And masters wait tables and serve the servants....
In his book Living Jesus, Luke Timothy Johnson writes, “The claim to be learning Jesus is superficial if not grounded in specific practices that embody such learning. The pattern of faithful obedience and loving service is not something to be memorized as though it were a mental image. Rather, it is a pattern that must be spelled out in the practices of living faith within a community...The pattern by which we were imprinted by baptism – the pattern of a dying and rising Lord Jesus....We need to translate this pattern into consistent habits of behavior that express the mind of Christ.” 9
Johnson continues, “We shall not be able to learn Jesus in the sick and imprisoned unless we visit those who are sick and imprisoned. We shall not find Jesus in the hungry and thirsty unless we go to those who are hungry with food and to those who are thirsty with drink. We shall not meet Jesus in the stranger unless we provide the stranger with hospitality...”10
Johnson is right and his description addresses what should be the ministry of all the baptized. But his words and images point with special particularity, I believe, to the ministry of the deacon as that ministry is understood in the Book of Common Prayer and as that ministry has been handed down to us through th ages in the church: a ministry, a radical ministry, to which Clelia is now called and into which she is now to be ordained...She has the heart for it....She has a deacons heart through and through....

Charge to Clelia
Clelia, God has led you on an extraordinary journey and now calls you into an extraordinary ministry of service...I know you...I know you well....I give thanks for this day and for God’s call to you...I think it has been a long time coming....I am thankful for the privilege of sharing with you in this call....You know about power and privilege and celebrity and the all the superficialities and artificial categories of value that mark the world in which we live....You have lived among them....
You have also recognized the needs of the world and dedicated yourself as a layperson and social worker to responding to those needs....Christ now calls you into deeper servanthood and deeper love....On behalf of God’s people, I now charge you to continue to grow in Christ’s love and service and to grow in your servant ministry as a deacon....Continue to break boundaries, to journey to places of discomfort and pain, to journey to places which challenge your own comfort level and perhaps even threaten your own self-understanding...Go to those places...Go to those places because you are needed there...Go to those places because Christ is needed there...Let those who see you, see, experience Christ, through you and in you...Let his words resound through your ministry, “I am among you as one who serves.”

Charge to the People

It is customary for the preacher at an ordination service to charge the ordinand and I have just done this...But it is important that we all be charged....Clelia is about to be ordained to the servant ministry of Deacon, but we should recognize that her particular ministry is a specific expression of the servant ministry we all share by virtue of our baptism...We have promised that we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves...In this promise, we indicate our share in the diaconate. I charge you all therefore, not only to support Clelia in her diaconal ministry, but to remember that we you are all called to represent the reconciling love of Christ and his church wherever you may: in the home, at work, in school, at play, in service. The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ....May Christ give you strength and grace to be willing and obedient servants in that restoration work...May God bless and keep you always in his heart and love...Amen

Feed My Sheep...Follow me.

2010-04-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sermon
Feed My Sheep…Follow Me
April 18, 2010

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him “Feed my sheep.”…After this he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21:15-19

“Feed my lambs;” Tend my sheep;” “Feed my sheep;” “Follow me.” These are Jesus’ words to Peter, today. They are words that form commands; words that confer responsibility; words that imply trust; words foundational to the Christian Church.

They are commands that charge one to go forth in love and faith, both following Jesus and caring for the Christian community at the very same time.

Most certainly, these are commands that would normally be saved for only the most trusted friend or family member.

Yet, wait a minute…wasn’t Peter the disciple who just a few days earlier, during Jesus’ arrest and trial in Jerusalem, denied him twice by saying, “No, I am not one if his disciples,” and then a third time by saying, “No, I was not in the garden with him.”

Wasn’t Peter the disciple who could have come forward and defended Jesus, but didn’t, instead choosing to lurk in the shadows and escape responsibility? Wasn’t Peter the disciple who avoided offering the support that should have been given by one of Jesus’ followers; one of his trusted disciples?

Can it be that Peter – the Peter who denied; the Peter who avoided responsibility; the Peter who lost his way - who has now been chosen by Jesus to lead in his place; to, “Tend my sheep, and follow me?”
How are we to interpret this sudden and complete trust in someone who has just performed cowardly acts of betrayal and untrustworthiness? Someone who had just demonstrated blatant acts unfaithfulness?

We might wonder why Jesus didn’t instead choose John for this role of leadership. At first glance, John seems to be the perfect choice. He was, after all, Jesus’ favorite apostle.
It was John, not Peter, who stood by the foot of the cross as Jesus died, ignoring the danger of being arrested and put to death by the Romans. It was John, not Peter, whom Jesus chose to act as guardian of his mother Mary. It was John, not Peter, who had been the perfect disciple; the ever faithful friend; the dependable one. It seems impossible to imagine a more appropriate choice than John for Jesus to choose to lead his Church.
So why did Jesus choose Peter and not John? Did Jesus know something we do not? I think so – I think that while John was the “perfect” disciple; the disciple who did everything right with unfailing loyalty, Jesus knew that we are all Peter. We are not perfect. We all have moments of weakness; times of doubt; periods of our lives that are not so pretty perfect. We all lose our way – every single one of us. No one of us is perfect. And therefore, because no one could live up to John’s example of perfection, Jesus chose Peter.
Jesus does not expect us to be perfect.
Jesus knew that Peter would rebound from his fall and become the strong, natural leader he was. Jesus knew that by choosing Peter, he gave hope to the thousands of generations that would follow…. It’s as if Jesus is telling us, “I do not call you to be perfect. Do not fear falling, or failing, follow me and you will rebound. All I ask is that you have faith and follow me.”
In today’s passage, Jesus also tells Peter, “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.”
Here, Jesus is warning Peter that his newly assigned task of leading the infant Christian Church will be not be an easy one. It will require courage, endurance, and the strength to face a painful death for the sake of the Church; for Jesus’ sake.
Having been given his charge by Jesus, Peter initially worked to establish the early Church by preaching to the scattered Jews and Hebrew Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Several years later, Peter went to Rome where he quickly became the leader of the Christian movement, and a favorite of the Emperor Nero.
However, Peter, and the tenacity with which he carried forth his mission to follow Jesus by spreading the Good News and creating a Christian community, soon became a threat to the powerful Roman ruler. Nero decided that he needed to eliminate Peter, and the Christian Church, as well.
Church history says that Peter probably died by crucifixion, with his head to the ground and his arms outstretched, shortly after the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64. A fire that Nero himself set in an effort to discredit the Christians.
Margherita Guarducci, who between 1963 and 1968 led the last stages of the research leading to the rediscovery of Peter’s tomb, concludes that Peter died on October 13 A.D. 64 on the occasion of the 10th dies imperii (coronation day anniversary) of Emperor Nero. The dies imperii was always accompanied by much bloodshed – gladiators, chariot rides – all of the Charlton Heston blood and gore that we’ve seen in movies like The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur.
It was on this bloody 10th anniversary day that Roman authorities sentenced Peter to death by crucifixion amidst all the rest of the bloodshed that was occurring around him. Peter’s burial place is thought to be where the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome was later built, directly beneath the Basilica's high altar.
Today, we hear that Jesus charged Peter. Jesus charged Peter to feed his sheep and to follow him. Jesus charged Peter with the task of taking the Good News into the world fearlessly, with love, courage, and faith, knowing that his Lord would always be there to guide, support, and forgive him.
Is Jesus’ charge for Peter only? No – Jesus charges us all. He charges us through our Baptismal Covenant; he charges us through the various “calls” that we receive in his name; he charges us in and through the ministry of the lay and the ordained to feed his sheep and to follow him.
Just last Saturday, I was charged by Bishop Dan to “study the Holy Scriptures, to seek nourishment from them, and to model [my] life upon them”. I was charged “to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world.” I was charged “to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely.”
Several years ago when Julie was ordained, she was charged “to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” She was charged “to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to [her].”
When Bishop Dan was ordained, he was charged “to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church; to celebrate and to provide for the administration of the sacraments of the New Covenant; to ordain priests and deacons and to join in ordaining bishops; and to be in all things a faithful pastor and wholesome example for the entire flock of Christ.”
You, the laity, are charged “to represent Christ and his church; to bear witness to him wherever you may be; and according to the gift given to you, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take your place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.”
Jesus has charged us all – laity, deacon, priest, and bishop. We have all been assigned a job and clearly instructed as to how to carry out that job. We have all been charged to feed Christ’s sheep and to follow him. Like Peter, we will deny, we will avoid responsibility, we will become lost. Jesus knew that would happen; but, he trusted that, as with Peter, and like lost sheep, we would, with the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us, once again find our way.
Last week, after my consecration as a deacon in the Episcopal Church, Bishop Dan, as is customary, presented me with a bible. His inscription in this bible reads, “May the Lord who has given you the will to do these things, give you the grace and power to perform them.”
This was Jesus’ wish for Peter; it is Jesus’ wish for you; it is my prayer for you.

A Letter from The Rev. Lauren Stanley

2010-04-02T06:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends in Christ:

In Haiti's epicenter, anywhere you walk, you are walking in death.

Everywhere you step in earthquake-devastated epicenter of Port au Prince and Leogane and the surrounding areas, your feet get dirty. There are few open spaces left, and what once was open is now filled with tents and tent cities. There is little sanitation. Garbage is picked up some days, but piles up most others. The rains sweep everything down the streets and sidewalks: raw sewage, mud from the crumbled buildings, the decaying remains of those who died and who have still not been found, still not been uncovered in the rubble.

If any one group of people need their feet washed, especially on Maundy Thursday, it is the Haitians, for they walk in death every single day.

But foot-washing -- a part of the Christian tradition that comes from the Evangelist John's description of the Last Supper, in which Jesus washed the feet of his disciples -- is not a tradition in the Episcopal Church here. I'm not certain why it isn't, I simply know that when I asked, "Do we wash the people's feet here?" I was told, "No."

I wish that were not so, because right now, Haitians need that foot-washing.

Not just because they are walking in death.

But because I think that most Haitians - those living in tents and tent cities, and those who are in their own homes - need the rest of the world to bathe them in the same love in which Jesus bathed his disciples' feet.

The standard explanation of the foot-washing scene in John's Gospel is that Jesus wanted to show how far he was willing to go to be a servant to his disciples, to set an example for them, so that they in turn might be servants as well.

But I have always believed that there is so much more to the story than simply example-setting. I believe that Jesus got on his knees and washed his disciples dirty, smelly, probably ugly feet -- that terribly despised portion of the body that most people really don't want to have washed in public -- I believe Jesus did this as an act of pure love. I believe Jesus took each foot and caressed it, rubbed it, washed it clean, and gently rubbed it dry out of pure love.

And if anyone needs to experience that kind of gentle love, it is the Haitians. They have suffered so much for so long, and then have been torn asunder physically, emotionally and psychologically by this earthquake. Now, the very ground on which they walk is filled with death. What would it be like, I asked the small congregation gathered for Maundy Thursday services at St. James the Just, if we were to have OUR feet washed, and then were to go across the street to the Tent City where approximately 6,000 people are encamped, and wash THEIR feet? What would happen if we were to show to all those in such great need the same absolute, tender love that Jesus showed to his disciples?

We don't do foot-washing in Haiti -- at least, not yet. Pere David Cesar and I talked about possibly introducing the service next year.

But right now, I said, I think it's something that Haiti desperately needs: Gentle, tender, pure love. Each of us, I said, needs to take the love of Christ that we feel -- however big or small -- and share it, gently and tenderly -- with those who need it so much more.

When Jesus got down on his knees, I said, he did it out of love. And that very act alone changed the world.

We, too, I said, can do this. We can get on OUR knees, figuratively and literally, and in doing so change not just Haiti, but the world.

I don't want to walk in death any more. The Haitians don't want to walk in death any more. What they want -- what they NEED, right now -- is to walk in love.

What better way to show that love than to have our dirty, smelly, ugly feet washed, and then to wash the dirty, smelly, ugly feet of others?

That kind of love, that kind of willingness to lessen ourselves so that others may be loved and may find life -- THAT kind of love changed the world once, and it can change the world again.

I really wanted to wash some feet tonight, and I wanted my own feet washed, in the pure, tender, gentle love of Jesus. We did so figuratively. Hopefully soon, we'll do so literally as well.

Blessings and peace in this Holy Week,
Lauren

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley
TEC Appointed Missionary in Haiti
Assistant to Bishop Duracin,
Partnership Program and Development
Diocese of Haiti
US mobile: 703-678-3892
Haitian mobile: 011 509 3865 8329
MereLaurenS@gmail.com
http://GoIntoTheWorld.net

Christmas Eve Sermon 2009

2009-12-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
5:00 PM
December 24, 2009
Luke 2:1-20

Over the past few weeks, at least three people have said to me, “I don’t know, I just don’t feel the Christmas Spirit this year. Maybe it’s because we can’t afford a lot of presents. We’re really pinching pennies right now. Who knows, I may not get anything at all.”

To me, these people are poor indeed. However, their poverty does not come from the fact that they will not receive any Christmas presents this year. No, their poverty stems from their perception that they need presents – this world presents – in order to be happy. Their poverty is the result of an inability to experience the greatest gift of all. A gift that is theirs this Christmas and always – not a gift wrapped in a shiny box or a supersize TV with a big red bow around it – but rather, the gift of life, love, and peace. The gift of God made man - God incarnate. The gift of Jesus Christ, our light and our Savior.

As I was preparing to write this sermon, I gave serious thought to these people who seem to need material gifts in order to experience joy. I found myself wishing that some of them might be here with us tonight as we, who are blessed with the knowledge of Christ, experience the power of his birth in this 2009 Christmas Eve Eucharist service.

I also prayed that I could summon the creative juices that might in some small way bring life to this awesome event, and bring honor to Mary’s glorious words recorded in the Magnificat, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”

In the end, I decided that I needed all of you in the pews to help me out. The awesome task of honoring Christ’s birth needs to be a community event – a real celebration. So, as we review the birth story in tonight’s Gospel reading, I am going to ask you to speak up on cue from your handout. No singing is needed, although these short quotes are verses from hymns that you will recognize.
No, no singing is needed. What is needed though is a thoughtful reading of each verse when I give the sign. Remember, you are helping me tell the story of this wondrous event.

“While they were there, the time came for her to deliver a child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:6-7)

People: Hymn #101; verse 1

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed
the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.

Mary and Joseph had travelled from Nazareth to Galilee to register for a census. The purpose of the census was to insure that everyone was accounted for and taxed appropriately. This was a long journey – about 90 miles each way. Whether on foot or by donkey, it must have been a very difficult and unpleasant journey for Mary who was pregnant.

On the way home, exhausted and knowing that Mary might be about to deliver her child, the couple stopped at an inn seeking lodging. All the rooms were filled. Mary and Joseph were offered an alternative place to stay – the manger, a space normally reserved as a shelter for animals. It was in this very humble space that the birth of Christ took place.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, God incarnate, our Savior and our Redeemer was not born in the comfort of a fancy palace or temple. His parents were given no special consideration. The innkeeper did not move an existing guest and give them a real room instead of a dirty animal shed. No grand and glorious welcome befitting a king here. No, Christ was born in the most humble of settings among the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable – among those whom he would serve, teach, and encourage to become his followers, his disciples. Ordinary people, just like you and me.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Then the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (Luke 2:8-9)

People: Hymn #94, verses 1 & 2

While shepherds watched their flocks by night all seated on the ground,
the angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around.

“Fear not,” said he, for mighty dread has seized their troubled mind;
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind.”

Shepherds were not rich. Shepherds were not sophisticated. Shepherds were not educated. Shepherds had little, if any, social standing. Yet, God chose them to be the first to learn of Christ’s birth. God revealed himself and the birth of His Son to the most ordinary of men – not to kings or emperors.

Imagine these tired and dirty men out in a dark field, perhaps cold and hungry, minding their own business and tending their sheep when all of a sudden an angel appears before them – an angel in a cloud of glory! They were terrified!

But the angel said, “Fear not.” And then, miraculously, “The glory of the Lord shone around them.”

Somehow the shepherds understood the grace that had befallen them. They heard God. They listened intently and in awe as the angel said, “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. (Luke 2:15-16)

People: Hymn #83, verse 1

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him, born the King of Angels;
O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

The sheep were forgotten. The shepherds knew in their hearts that they had to see for themselves this miraculous “Thing that had taken place.” They dropped everything, including their livelihood – the sheep – and hurried off to Bethlehem.

These shepherds foreshadowed all those men and women who in the coming years would lay down their worldly goods and gifts to follow Christ – the fishermen, the tax collector, and all the saints who have given their lives to proclaim the Good News of Christ.

As Jesus said to the man who was asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21)

Once we have seen the glory of the Lord, there is no hesitation, no concern for what others may think or what the consequences of our commitment to Christ might be - no hesitation at all - we simply love, or adore, him with all our hearts, and all our minds, and all our souls.

When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” (Luke2:17-20)

Hymn #88, verse 1

Sing, o sing, this blessed morn, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, God himself comes down from heaven.
Sing, O sing, the blessed morn, Jesus Christ today is born.

The shepherds were amazed at what they had been told, and what they had seen when they finally arrived at the manger scene in Bethlehem. These very ordinary people served as witnesses to the Incarnation, just as other very ordinary people would later become witnesses to the resurrection.

Other than the angels, the shepherds were the first to proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ birth. Not CNN or Fox News, not the New York Times, not Newsweek or Time Magazine – just ordinary folks like you and me, singing praises from door-to-door.

Tonight, it is very ordinary people like you and me who, once again, are witnessing the birth of Christ. It is very ordinary people like you and me who will follow this Christ-child through the brief but world changing 33 years of his life. It is ordinary people like you and me who will journey with him to his death on the cross, his resurrection, and beyond as we, ordinary people, just like the shepherds, proclaim the Good News of Christ’s birth in ordinary places, over and over again.

As we consider in awe, just as the shepherds did over 2000 years ago, the profundity of this miracle of Christmas Eve, let us open our hearts to the wondrous gift of God made man. Let us pray that we may grow in His likeness until we find eternal love and salvation in His presence, now and ever after.

I hope that you will all receive wonderful gifts in bright shiny boxes whether tonight or tomorrow morning – whenever is your custom to share Christmas presents. But, more than shiny gifts, I hope that right now you will open your heart to discover the greatest gift of all – Jesus Christ.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay
close by me forever, and love me I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

Sedona...here I come!

2009-05-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the place for reflection has been decided upon. July 1-5 will be spent in Sedona, AZ, a truly beautiful and spiritual place. I have also decided that two days sans computer is a part of this retreat process. This has been quite a year. I can't believe all that has happened in my life since leaving Florida just 18 months ago. Most especially, I can't believe that my ordination is becoming a reality. There is so much to think about, so much to continue to discern with regard to my call from God. As we approach the day of Pentecost, I am filled with an overflowing sense of the Holy Spirit and his presence in my life.

So Many Things To Do

2009-05-18T06:01:00.001-07:00

My attempts to remain faithful to my blog seem to have gone astray. One day fades into the next and before you know it the week has passed. Some good intentions have been fulfilled; others not. The trouble with this rapid passage of time that leaves life in a blur, is that we quickly loose sight of the forest through the trees. We are so intent and, sometimes drained, by dealing with the present that we forget our future is limited in time. This dilemma is all too unpleasantly staring me in the face. I have so much that I want to do and so little time. A new commitment has arisen - take some time to figure out the priorities of time for myself. The first week of July has now been set aside for this contemplative excercise. Wish me well. Peace...

Opening Our Minds

2009-05-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

I just read a reflection by Joan Chittister http://www.benetvision.org_In_Passing/05_04_09.html
The last paragraph relates very much to where my mind is at these days. "Once we empty ourselves to our certainties, we open ourselves to the mystery. We expose ourselves to the God in whom 'we live and move and have our being.' We bare ourselves to the possibility that God is seeking us in places and people and things we thought were outside the pale of the God of our spiritual childhood. Then life changes color, changes tone, changes purpose. We begin to live more fully, not just in touch with the earth, but with the eternal sound of the universe as well."
Life is safe when we keep it in the little box we have constructed to help us understand what life is all about. Once that box breaks, wears out, etc. life can be very scary. We question God. I am not sure that He wants to protect us from those questions. But I am sure that He wants to shepherd us to the answers that are right for us. Peace, Clelia

Responding to Violence

2009-05-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Bishop Dan's Blog of yesterday http://www.bishopdansblog.blogspot.com/ speaks of the dreadful violence that is prevalent throughout the world today. My personal belief as a clinician, and as an observer of life, is that a great deal of this violence is the result of traumatic stress disorder. A phenomenon that begins in utero. Salient symptoms of traumatic stress disorder among both children and adults are anxiety, panic, anger, violence, substance abuse, and mental illness. Traumas pile up. If a child is traumatized in early childhood (let's say by the death of a parent, violence within the home, etc) the trauma impacts the successful acheivement of what ever developmental milestone that child is going through at the moment. Unless the child receives help at that time, he/she is likely to be stuck at that developmental milestone. As a child, or adult, experiences more life trauma, the situations, left unattended, compound themselves. We have lots and lots of traumatized children, and adults, in the United States at this moment in time, with very few programs to identify or treat this serious issue. The same principle applies to our returning vets. They have been severely traumatized in one way or another during the course of their military service. They return home after having been in the midst of flying bullets, exploding rockets, and mutilated bodies, only to be told to turn in their uniform and gun and get a job. This approach is not working. The learned violence and the trauma of this war on terrorism hangs on and on perpetuating more violence.

We have a traumatized society. I have come to believe that until we think of ourselves in this light, we will only become more traumatized and more violent.

The Weeks Fly By

2009-05-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

I find it difficult to believe that we are at the end of yet another week - a week that has been, once again, filled with amazing stories from the growing number of clients that I am seeing in individual counseling. Almost all my clients have PTSD caused by events that range from the Vietnam War to being stabbed by an angry boyfriend several weeks ago. Some are young (13), some are older (59). The stories and feelings that are shared with me can be very difficult to hear and to process as I move through time and continually consider the lives that God asks us to live. Through all the tears, anxiety, anger, and grief, however, there is rarely a time when God fails to enter the story. At some point or another, the storyteller always brings up the way(s) in which they sought God's help in living through their dilemma. Each day, I am struck by the fact that, for the most part, we all go forward. We all move through life, no matter what the circumstances, with great moments of joy, humor, and apprieciation and prayer of thanks for the gifts that God has given us. My difficult work could possibly make one question God in a negative way - for me, it has strengthened the powerful reality of a God who is with us constantly, in ways that we will never understand, with gifts that we are always discovering and receiving.

Poverty vs. Culture

2009-04-25T09:02:00.001-07:00

For a while now, I have been struggling with the cause(s) of various dilemmas that I encounter with the clients that come to our organization for help. Most individuals who end up in our waiting room are quite, if not very, poor. Initally, I blamed everything on poverty. However, recently it has become clear to me that our clients' problems extend far beyond their poverty issues. The other day as I was thinking in the shower (one of the best places to think quietly I have found), it struck me that the real problem out here in the wilderness is not poverty - it is cultural. In my theological framework, I would say that for the most part, the wild west has not been touched by the Holy Spirit. By this I mean that the culture accepts, perhaps promotes, self-motivated, impulsive, and violent behaviors. This type of lifestyle produces isolation, anxiety, and indifference. I am just re-reading the Acts of the Apostles in preparation for a Christian Education class that I will be giving, and in reflecting on this issue of poverty vs. culture I am reminded of the inital work of the apostles and their commitment to the mission that had been given to them by Christ; their understanding and internalized knoweldge of the power of the Holy Spirit. Slowly in that difficult wilderness of ancient times, they converted first a few, then a few hundred, and then a few thousand. They did not change any socioeconomic problems, but they did bring healing and brotherly love - a spirituality of compassion - the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray that we can in some small way do the same.

2009-04-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

What a Week!

This has been quite a week. Everything from meeting with Senator Harry Reid to finding out late yesterday afternoon that our organization has received an additional $44,000 for one of our grant requests. The good thing is that the grant is a three-year grant - that means $44,000 x3. The extra funds will allow us to place a staff member way up north where one is desparately needed. However, in the middle of these two "good news" bookends were a lot of difficult situations and challenges for my small staff of eight. It's interesting to note that we are all deeply committed to our various faiths. Our common denominator is a sense of mission to relieve suffering, fear, hunger, and loneliness. There are always unspoken words of faith and prayer as we work together as a team to problem solve. A visitor noted the other day, "there is a real sense of peace in this office." I agree with him. We are all at peace, because we are led by Christ in our mission.

2009-04-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

Visit with Senator Reid

My visit with the Senator and some of his staff was awesome. A handful of other community members and I got to introduce ourselves and then hear from the Senator about what's going on in Wahsington. He has found a great staff and a great way to network himself to his constituents. His methods and his words gave me hope, for the first time in a great while, that this country might be turning onto a better path. The visit also reminded me of how important contact with our legislators is. I flashed back to my AIDS activist days and memories of many flights to Washington D.C.; meetings with other activists from throughout the country to strategize; and then several days of meetings with various senators, congressmen etc. It was hard work, but totally effective. We got the inital and continuing Ryan White funding and the critically needed state of the art clinical trials that would identify so many effective medications in treating HIV. I don't know about becoming an activist once again. But, maybe...there are many issues to be addressed.

2009-04-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

On My Way To Senator Reid's Office

I am just about to set off for Las Vegas and a meeting with Senator Harry Reid. One of his Nevada aides called last week to say that he'd like to learn more about our programs. This meeting comes at a time when we, just like everyone else in the non-profit world, are quite worried about funding for next year. Senator Reid could open some important doors for us at the Office of Violence Against Women in Washington, D.C. It's also very windy outside, and I am not fond of driving through the mountain pass that takes me from Pahrump to Las Vegas and back in high winds - it can be scary. So, I would have to say, I have butterflies in my stomach. It is one of those times when I allow my mind to empty and to focus on an image of Christ that I have in my mnd's eye - Christ as he shared the Last Supper with his disciples. This image and my thoughts of his love, comapssion, and courage give me strength and courage of my own. I pray that by the time I reach Senator Reid's office, with Christ's help, I will have laid aside my personal thoughts and concerns, and be an effective spokesperson for those we are attempting to help.

2009-04-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

A Day in the Desert

We decided to spend a reflective day in the desert. We drove over to Indian Springs to visit Auntie Moe's, a wonderful source for Native American art, crafts, and jewelry. The entire 60+ mile drive was through barren desert ringed by mountains - some with snow, others with none at all. We stopped along the way simply to reflect on the peace and beauty of it all. Standing in the vast open space with the wind buffeting our clothing, it was hard to imagine the turmoil of the populated world - a good place to pray and consider the joy of Easter Sunday. When we arrived at Auntie Moe's, we discovered that her husband had died of cancer last night. Another time for a prayer and a big hug. We plan to return to the desert - this time Death Valley - tomorrow. This is a good weekend to let it all sink in without distractions, and in a place where God's presence is so evident.

2009-04-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

Concerns From Pahrump

We are working diligently as a community to establish a more effective and efficient safety network both those living in poverty and for the many children who are abused and/or neglected in our little town. This is work that sometimes tests one's faith. So, throughout Holy Week, I have given great thought to what faith really means and how we can keep it alive when faced with adversity and shockingly sorrowful stories of small children and lost teens. Our hearts are broken by what we see; it is difficult to identify a justifiable explanation for such distressing circumstances - some that are irreparable. We are like Doubting Thomas before Jesus appeared to him. But Jesus did appear. He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." This commission gives us the task of going forward in our ministries, and of keeping our heart and minds open to the power of the Holy Spirit.