Gospel text for the Annunciation 17 March 2018

Luke 1:26-38        In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Reflection     How willing are we to affirm, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word?” After all, this is saying, “Yes, yes,” to certain uncertainty. It is saying, “ Yes, yes,” knowing that the things that frighten us most are likely to happen to us. This is where we squint and wonder, can we find our confidence in the angel’s proclamation,“Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God?” This is where we wrestle with the question, “Is it possible that God finds favor even with me?”

As an unapologetic human who has tripped over more stumbling blocks and succumbed to more temptations than I care to recount, I must confess I was and to a great degree still am, shocked to experience God’s favor. For decades I refused to utter the word G-O-D because it represented all that I rejected; intolerance, injustice, inequity, condemnation and punishment. A distant deity preoccupied with my impending transgressions had no gravity with me. 

To say that I was stunned when a warm and consolatory God arose from the depths of my cadaverous dark night does not begin to translate my metamorphosis. Suffice to say, because of God’s favor toward me, I said, “Here I am,” and today I am a priest in God’s church - and still stunned by my transfiguration.

Last week when Arizona’s retired Episcopal Bishop Kirk Smith introduced the Presiding Bishop Curry to a church full of clergy, Smith referenced the now famous sermon that Curry preached at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. (Did you know that more people have listened to that sermon than any other sermon in history?) Being the unpretentious extrovert that he is, Curry explained that he was stunned by the enormous response and initially confounded. Until he realized, people from across the globe where astonished to hear a Christian speak of love. The narrative about Christians, at least in the US today is, Christians are angry, loud and exclusionary people who engage in hate group activity against abortion and LGBTQ people. Christians are inordinately concerned with deciding who will or will not get to heaven. This is the way Curry summarized it, “The dominant way Christianity is seen in the culture is not the way of love.” 

Like me, too many people hear this message about God and Christianity, have no use for it and turn away. How can folks believe God has found favor with them when the people (read clerics and other leaders) who speak for God’s Church express hostility, prejudice and malevolence toward them? 

Looks like those of us who have encountered a God of love, forgiveness and inclusion without exception need to stand up and give voice to this version of God in the world. Of course, the prospect is unnerving if we think we have to rely upon ourselves to speak up. But the good news is, we don’t have to put our faith in ourselves to find the efficacious words and the salient moments. All we have to do is say,”Yes, here I am Lord, let it be with me according to YOUR WORD,” and there we have it. 

The Word God is with us. We can depend on it. The Word God enables us to do all things and to renew all things.   The Word God with us empowers us to show the world that our God is God of mercy, compassion, justice and peace.  Do not be afraid. God has found favor with you.

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Gospel text for First Sunday of Advent 3 December 2017

Mark 13:24-37        Jesus said, “In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Reflection   Jesus’ graphic words remind me of most mornings when I turn on the computer to read the breaking news; sexual harassment and misconduct, firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles, challenges to privacy and free speech, inflammatory twitters, racism, sexism, agism, classism, cronyism, lying, cheating, killing innocent people, hurricanes and wildfires, starving children, seas of refugees. The list goes on and conjures images of the sun and the moon going dark, and the stars falling from the sky.  I am tempted to pull the plug on my computer, go back to bed and drag the covers over my head. But the news of the day does not go away any more than Jesus’ concluding instruction. “Keep awake!”

Jesus counsels, “When darkness sweeps over the earth and all that you have counted on to be reliable and true seems to be falling from the sky into the abyss, keep awake, for it is out of the midst of darkness that new light rises.” When dark is at its darkest and things appear to be at their worst, that is when we must keep awake, to have hope for something new, to expect something good to arrive. The thing is, we cannot predict when this new light is coming so if we pull the covers over our eyes and succumb to the temptation to go to sleep, there is every chance we will miss the experience of something new and good and surprising. And if we miss it, how will we share it? How will be pass on the revelation of God’s light? 

I believe the answer is fairly straightforward. When we “keep awake” we refuse to succumb to the darkness and we become the revelation of God’s light. Every time we choose to be emissaries of peace rather than purveyors of disharmony and discord (rather than forwarding the nasty political cartoon, delete it) we are the revelations of God’s light.  We are the revelations of God’s light every time we choose to cultivate love rather than breed neglect and enmity (by generously giving to the panhandler rather than speculating about how they are working the system). We are the revelations of God’s light every time we choose to express joy rather than misery and desperation (talking about our blessings rather than complaining about our difficulties or scouring the news for perversions or people to castigate). 

When we refuse to succumb to the subterfuge of darkness and decide to “keep awake”  we become the revelation of new light which is nothing less than a new way of being human, a new way of being the peace, love and joy we hope for all humanity.

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