Gospel text for Sunday 12 December 2021

 

Luke 3:7-18          John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Reflection        John is cajoling crowds of people who have left their homes to come to the wilderness, listen to an itinerant prophet and be baptized. Several questions loom largely.  Who are these people? What are they looking for? What compels them to leave their familiar places and go into the wilderness? Why do they listen to a grizzly wanderer calling them “a brood of vipers?” Then, instead of leaving when insulted, why do the people ask, “What then should we do?”

Well, I cannot answer any of those questions but they make me wonder about the crowd of folks who show up every Sunday on Facebook Live to “attend” worship at Church of the Apostles. The fact is, most Sunday’s the number of folks worshipping on Facebook Live exceeds the number actually sitting in the sanctuary. 

Again, several questions loom largely. Who are these people? What are they looking for? What compels them to get out of bed, stop searching the web and virtually visit Church of the Apostles? Why do they listen to me calling people to “Repent, turn around, put their heads in the wilderness of their hearts?”

Why do they return week after week to hear me prod them to let their lives look like the life of the itinerant preacher, teacher, healer Jesus who challenges the status quo keepers of institution and empire while treating every stranger, foreigner, leper, sinner and thief with dignity and kindness?

I cannot answer any of these questions but I will speculate. Although it is unlikely the Facebook Live worshippers are looking to be baptized I believe there is every chance they are showing up because they are long for a new way of live, a way that is loving and liberating, a way that affirms the dignity and worth of all human beings. I believe the unidentified folks showing up for virtual worship are looking for a beloved community in which everyone has a place at the table and everyone is interested in the well being of all. 

So Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! This is the Way of Jesus, the way that welcomes every color of the rainbow, refugees and asylum seekers, wealthy and impoverished, conservative and progressive, partisan and independent because the Way of Jesus is deeper than any difference. The Way of Jesus strives for “justice and peace among all people and respects the dignity of every human being.” This is the baptism by “the Holy Spirit and fire,” about which John is speaking because it demands nothing less than transforming ourselves into One Loving Community in which we really do respect and dignify ALL people, and that is radical change.  So Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

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Epistle and Gospel texts for Sunday 19 September 2021

                               
                                       Walking in the Dark

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a         Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Mark 9:30-37        Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 

example of the opposite of practical wisdom - which is cooperative and peace making not argumentative and destructive

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”         

                      

Reflection       It was the early 1980s when I found myself in an unlikely situation, hiking pueblo ruins with Good Bear, a South Dakota Sioux. Having recently arrived in New Mexico  from New England I was getting to know the staff at a program for Native American youth. Good Bear was a counselor for  the treatment program. I was their new consultant

A bevy of program staff invited me to join them on a hike in Bandeleir National Monument. Replete with cliffs, cave dwellings, all manner of prickly things and snakes, this cautious New England transplant kept her eyes safely glued to her feet. Gradually people moved ahead or fell behind along the trail. Good Bear, whose name could fittingly have been Great Bear to accede his towering height and presence, fell in next to me and for three hours intermittently wove a story that culminated in wise counsel. “Let your feet walk and your eyes be where you are.” My hard-boiled blurt, “Why did you not tell me that three hours ago?” evoked no response. Over the next several years Good Bear taught me to talk to trees, listen to birds, smell the air and walk through forrest at night without flashlight neither stumbling nor having my eyes poked out by aberrant limbs. Good Bear invited me to stretch beyond my left brain apprehension of the world to experiencer something deeper, something that connects me to all that is.  With imperturbable patience he opened for me the experience of my rootedness in creation which I have come to understand as the source of practical wisdom.

Among indigenous people wisdom and right living emerge from an all inclusive integrative relationship with all that is. It is not hierarchical. This stands in stark contrast to the intellectual morality to which 21st c western civilized people subscribe and has plagued the human situation since, well, at least the time Jesus and his disciples were entering Capernaum. 

Jesus asked, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. “ I believe this snap-shot of life epitomizes the opposite of practical wisdom because practical wisdom is cooperative and peace making. It understands everyone and everything is interdependent and interconnected. By contrast, cultural wisdom is argumentative and destructive, understanding everyone and everything to  be in competition, fighting to survive. Although the gospel text does not delineate it in such terms clearly Jesus is a proponent of practical wisdom rooted in the understanding of the all inclusive nature of creation.

The writer of Jame’s letter notes, “ The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. “ If only the leaders of our cities, states and countries and religious institutions would put down their argumentative and destructive ways and pick up practical wisdom. And, if every one of us would do likewise we might well be surprised by how handily we can walk in the dark without tripping or being poked in the eye and, as one body, one people we could stop the degradation of every aspect of creation.

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Hebrew Testament Text for 2nd Sunday in Lent 8 March 2020

Genesis 12:1-4a       The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.

Reflection   This wisdom tale, probably written about six hundred years before the current era, is the story of the first Jew, Abram, the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abram was part of a culture that found their identity in relation to the land on which they lived and the fathers and grandfathers and great-grand fathers from whom they were descended.

For Abram to leave his land and his father’s house was unimaginable. People of the ancient middle east did not immigrate from place to place. Not only were people tied to their land they depended on the local deities or gods for protection. Every aspect of their lives, food, fertility, culture and family welfare was linked to particular idols or gods which they took great pains never to offend. 

So how was Abram able to take the risk to go where he did not know and never be the same?

The oldest Torah, or Hebrew Testament commentary in existence, the Midrash Rabbah, written some two thousand years ago, has this to to say about Abram.

Abram’s family business was the making of idols. Having observed his father, grandfather and other relatives carve these local deities, even as a child Abram knew they could not speak and they were powerless.  So to walk away from the family business and risk offending gods or idols whom he knew had no power was really not earth shattering. But, to leave his place of origin to follow the voice of an invisible God and be a source of universal blessing, “blessings to all the families of the earth,” was unheard of.

Something inexplicable, something deep within Abram, enabled him to recognize the invisible voice of the One true God, the God of love on whom we can depend to bless us and make us a source of blessing. Abram’s is a story of faith. Which begs the question, What is faith? Faith is trusting or having confidence in someone or something without having concrete evidence. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11: 1). Faith is what connects us to the unborn, undying something more that we call God, HaShem, Allah.  Faith is what allows us to take risks because we put our faith in God with us.

When we hear the Divine invitation, “Go from your country your kindred and father’s house to a land that I will show you… and  I will bless you so that you will be a blessing to all the families of the earth,” we understand this is an invitation to evolve our faith, to move from a literal and mythic understanding of our relationship with God, take full possession of God’s blessing  and responsibility for delivering God’s blessing “to all the families of the earth.”

Abram’s story is a succinct synthesis of the journey of faith development, from the literal faith of a child to the all inclusive faith of a mature practitioner of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. As the father of all three great religious traditions Abram is a blessing to “all the families of the earth.” As children of Abram we are meant to continue the all inclusive journey of faith by opening our minds, and hearts and lives to be blessed and to pass on the blessing.  

Abram put his entire life on the line to follow God’s great calling. I believe he was able to take the risk because he trusted the voice of the invisible One that stirred something deep within his breast. Abram received God’s blessing which was sufficient for him to take the risk of ruin and ridicule by his neighbors who no doubt saw him as a crazy heathen.

Perhaps this is why the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry calls us to be Crazy Christians, people who refuse to be conformed to the world, instead people who choose to take the risk to step out of our comfortable ruts, allow our lives to be transformed so that we become the source of blessings for all the people on earth. 

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Gospel text for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day 24 December 2018

Join us for Christmas Services  
Dec 24th 5pm and 9pm 

Dec 25th 9:30am

Luke 2:1-14        In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her 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.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "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!”

Reflection        Mary and Joseph are living in Roman occupied territory and the Emperor Augustus is exercising his power over “the whole world” in order to enhance his wealth by requiring all people to register in their ancestral homes and be taxed accordingly. Here we see a picture of worldly power exercised without regard to the suffering and hardship it causes vast swaths of ordinary folks, people like pregnant Mary and her fianceé Joseph whom we meet tonight trekking across the dangerous desert skirting vipers, tigers, scorpions and bandits, giving birth to their son in conditions barely fit for barn yard animals, wrapping him in rags and tucking him into a feeding trough. 

At the same time we witness another story unfolding. An angel of the Lord, a messenger of God, breaks into this fear riddled night with a promise of light to poor shepherds who are ‘living in the field,’  poor men who stay awake all night to protect their sheep from predator wolves.  Surely we are as startled as the shepherds to hear the angels decree, ”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. And this will be a sign for you, you will find the child (wrapped in rags and lying in a feeding trough.)”

Two dramatically different ways to imagine the identical situation. Seen through Emperor Augustus’ eyes, the child born in the City of David, wrapped in rags and tucked into a feeding trough is of no consequence beyond adding a mite to the his tax revenue. From the angel’s angle, the child born in the City of David, wrapped in rags and tucked into a feeding trough is of unspeakable consequence, “a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,” and this is “good news of great joy for all the people.”

Angels, angelus, are messengers from God, and, if you have ever encountered an angel you know, angels bring with them the glory of God. We sang it in our Christmas Carol, “Angels we have heard on high singing sweetly through the night…. gloria in excelsis deo.” And again just before the reading of Luke’s gospel, “Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King!” Glorious exclamations of praise and joy. Christ is born. Our waiting is over. The promise of peace is fulfilled this night. This is the good news of great joy for all the people. 

The questions before us this Christmas are several. “Through whose eyes do we choose to see the whole world? Through the self-serving eyes of the autocrat or the all-inclusive vision of the angels? In which story do we choose to participate? In Augustus’ me first, “power over” parable of selfishness or in the angel’s all inclusive narrative of generosity? How do we choose to imagine our world? As a resource from which to extract as much as possible or as a resource given to be revered and protected for the good of all? Which voice do we choose to embody? The  disapproving shout of condemnation or the sanctifying voice singing praise to God?

Merry Christmas!

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Gospel text for Sunday 17 January 2016

John 2:1-11        On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Reflection         The man Jesus is extraordinary; he is empowered to do things not reasonably possible because he is led by the Spirit of God. And so his glory was revealed, “and his disciples began to believe.” Water, the ritual substance for the practice of Jewish purity rites was replaced with wine that we know will be the bloody substance of the cup of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice of his life; the sacrifice he consciously made rather than deny his true identity in relationship with God.  Water - wine, ordinary man - Son of God. What is common is also extraordinary.  

What if we believed that our ordinary selves are also extraordinary? What if we believed that all people are daughters and sons of God? Might we be compelled to live in imitation of Jesus full of mercy and compassion, willing to give our lives away for the good of others? Might we live without fear, free from the bondage of those who would claim not everyone is welcome to participate fully in the ministry and sacraments of God’s body, the Church?

On Thursday Jan. 14 the Anglican Communion voted to censure its American branch, the Episcopal Church, during a meeting in Canterbury, England. The Anglican Communion’s decision to suspend the Episcopal Church from voting and decision making for three years is a reaction to the Episcopal Church’s twelve years of prayerfully proceeding toward full inclusion of all people, including celebrating the marriage of same-sex couples. 

Which begs the question. Do we believe in (give priority to) human composed doctrine, i.e. the traditional doctrine of the church that upholds marriage as between a man and a woman? Or, do we choose to live fearlessly in imitation of Jesus who reveals Divine presence in and of, with and for all people, without exception? Do we believe we are One Body with many members as Paul writes to the Corinthians?

“Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (I Corinthians 12.14-26)

Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry writes, “We are the Episcopal Church, and we are part of the Jesus Movement, and that Movement goes on, and our work goes on. And the truth is, it may be part of our vocation to help the Communion and to help many others to grow in a direction where we can realize and live the love that God has for all of us, and we can one day be a Church and a Communion where all of God’s children are fully welcomed, where this is truly a house of prayer for all people. And maybe it’s a part of our vocation to help that to happen.”* Following Jesus is not about believing doctrine. Following Jesus is about action; action in accord with God’s economy where diversity is blessing and uniformity is condemnation.

*http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/01/15/presiding-bishop-and-primate-speaks-on-actions-at-primates-meeting/

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Gospel Text for Sunday, 18 May 2014

John 14:1-14        Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

Reflection     “I am the way and the truth and the life…” With his I am statements Jesus is saying to the disoriented community of  late first century religious Jews -  Believing me does not require that you dissociate yourselves from God of our ancestors. Believing me does not require that you turn away from the Great I Am as revealed to Moses and the prophets.  Believing me is contiguous with believing the God of our Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don’t you see, in God the Father’s house of creation there are many places in which to live.  There are many ways to be in relationship with I Am, God, first person present here and now.

Jesus’ I am statements were given to people who were steeped in the Jewish religious tradition, who understood the Torah, and who hopefully would make the connection between the God whom Moses encountered on Mt. Horeb from where he was sent to “say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3.14) and God as revealed more fully in the person of Jesus.

Jesus is the way of inclusive participation in the mystery of God, I Am, first person present. Jesus is the way first century Jewish Jesus followers could continue to connect with the mystery of the God of Israel. Their experience of Jesus as the way they could encounter God of their ancestors was never intended to be an exclusionary claim that Jesus is the only way for anyone to experience the God of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus is speaking to a particular people in a particular time about being in relationship with God who is always first person present.

I believe Jesus’ words to the late first century Jews, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” were intended to bridge the chasm between God of history and God first person present. Never were they meant to be an exclusionary claim to an exclusionary God.  I believe we would do well to recall Peter’s counsel  in the Acts of the Apostles, ”Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10.34) 

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Gospel text for Sunday 24 February 2013

                   In this ancient Byzantine Greek icon, we see Sophia, the feminine aspect of God, with her three daughters, 
                                                                                         Faith, Hope, and Love

Luke 13:31-35          Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” This is Jesus, fully human and fully male, describing himself in a profoundly feminine experience... as a hen gathering her chicks. In order to utter these words I believe Jesus must have had the personal experience of cradling, protecting and nurturing.  Jesus must have personally experienced a mother’s piercing desire to heal and cure, care for and protect her children.  And no doubt, Jesus was aware of the many times his Jewish ancestors recorded in the Hebrew Testament (Old Testament) feminine images, metaphors and language to describe their experiences of God. 

God is described as a protective mother eagle (Dt. 32:10-11), a fierce mother bear (Hosea 13:8), and a mother giving birth (Is. 42:14) and breast-feeding her child (Is. 49:15). God “loves the stranger whom He provides with food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18).Speaking for God the Prophet Isaiah proclaims, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, .... even when you turn grey I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” (Is 46.3-4) 

Both Testaments of the Bible are replete with masculine images of God. Lukes passage reminds us that Jesus himself also used a feminine image to describe himself, and in so doing he was also describing the One God, the Father, who sent him. The God of power and might is also kindhearted, gentle and humane.

Judaism and Christianity are both radically monotheistic. We believe in the ONE holy and living God. The One God who assures the divine origin of both male and female. The One God who reveals an inclusive understanding of Divine presence and action that transcends all distinctions, including male and female.