Hebrew Testament Text for 29 March 2020

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Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

Reflection       More than twenty six hundred years ago the God of Israel invited the prophet Ezekiel to use his imagination. God urges Ezekiel,  “…eat this scroll, and go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them…  Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; whether they hear or refuse to hear” (Ezk 4.3,4,10,11) Ezekiel swallows God’s words and much as the other prophets, turns God's words into action and chastises the people of God for turning away from God (being rebels) by being unresponsive to the needs of one another; killing the innocent, deriding the poor, rejecting foreigners, and failing to care for the most vulnerable; widows, orphans and elders.  Can we hear God whispering in our ears?  How are we rebelling? Who are we failing to care for? God’s message has not changed in the last twenty six hundred years. Have we?

Like all good prophets Ezekiel not only proclaims condemnation and death for those who fail to follow the way of God, he also offers hope for the future because we, the people of God, always need to hear both.  As we look around ourselves today and see everything seeming to expire; the streets of New York and San Francisco deserted, schools closed, businesses boarded up, jobs lost, stock market plummeting, grocery shelves barren and people succumbing to an insidious virus it is fair to say we find ourselves in a valley of dry bones and our sorry skeletons lament, “Our sinew is weak and our skin is transparent. Our bones are dry and they can no longer breath. “

But the voice of the Lord dismisses our lamentations. “ I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live… and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Still we are hard hearted and stubborn. We protest, “The situation is awful. Our hope is lost. Let us die so the young ones may thrive.“ Suddenly there is a noise, a rattling, and our bones come together. There is sinew on them, and flesh, and skin has covered them; but there is no breath in them,” until we are still, listen with Ezekiel and receive God’s living Word, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon (us), that (we) may live.”

There is One God, One Breath arriving from all directions , one  people living in all directions. The quickening breath of God is the great equalizer. God breathes on the honest and corrupt, the pure and the vulgar, citizens and strangers, the strong and the sick, across all nations. But many of us refuse God’s breath.  Like dry bones, we are inflexible, brittle, unwilling to change, which by the way is the definition of dead.  We have forsaken the inspiration of life in favor of the expiration of death.

For as long as we cling like adherent adhesive to life as we have known it we are like dry bones set down in the middle of the valley of death. But our story need not end there. When we finally choose to hear and to heed God’s unchanging words, being responsive to the needs of one another; protecting the innocent, providing for the poor, welcoming  foreigners, and caring for the most vulnerable among us the breath of life will fill us and we will live knowing that God is God and we are not.

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Remembering The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 19 January 2020

John 1:29-42        John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Reflection        Rather than reflect on the gospel I want to join our entire country recognizing an ordinary Holy man.  In his now famous and final Sunday sermon preached at the National Cathedral on March 31, 1968 I believe The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words are as relevant today as they were fifty two years ago. “Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.”

As it is with prophets throughout the ages, King’s words pierce the veneer of culture and call all citizens to right action. King confronts us, “On some positions, cowardice asks the question: Is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? Conscience asks the question: Is it right?” Now hear King’s call to action, “There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.” King was an ordinary Holy man calling on each and every one of us to be ordinary Holy men and Holy women (and forgive King his lack of gender neutral language) living for what is right. 

Prophets are ordinary people who dare to speak when others are silent. Prophets are people like you and me who choose to stand on the ground of our relationship with God even when it is not expedient, politic or popular because prophets are ordinary people who live by our conscience and choose to reveal God’s love every hour of every day, even, and perhaps especially, when it makes us uncomfortable.

Are prophets perfect? No. History has a scathing way of slicing and dicing a prophet’s character. And, that is actually good news because, prophets are ordinary people like you and me, imperfect people who have taken to heart and fashioned their lives as best they are able on the words of that Jewish prophet Jesus whom we hear praying, “Not my will, your will be done.” Somehow prophets know, and have always known, that God is present and active in the world today, something that we affirm at the beginning of our worship every single Sunday.

The presider acclaims, “God is with you.”   The people respond, “And also with you.”

Are these empty words? Do we mean them? It we do that means each one of us stands with God, derives our blessings from God, finds our courage in God, and acts deliberately to be a co-worker with God. 

It takes humility, courage and audacity to claim our identity as ordinary Holy people. Humility to admit that all that we are and all that we have is pure gift. Courage to put our faith in God with us, enabling us to be more than we can imagine. Audacity to not only hope but to act deliberately to call out the evils we witness and extend the blessings we enjoy. 

The world is crying out for us to  be co-workers with God and claim our place with ordinary Holy women and men like Martin Luther King, Jr. Shall we choose to live by our conscience?

Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday, 10 June 2018

Prophet or king, to whom shall we listen?

1 Samuel 8:4-20        All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; [and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers.] He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Reflection     Events have an interesting way of recurring and we humans have a way of forgetting what we learn. Nearing the end of his life it turns out Samuel’s sons are not unlike his teacher Eli’s sons had been, corrupt. “When (Samuel) made (his sons) judges over Israel… they did not follow in his ways, they took bribes and perverted justice.” (ISam 8.1,3) And the people come to Samuel demanding he anoint for them a king.

Theologians suggest two possible reasons the people want Samuel to  anoint a king for them. One train of thought suggests Samuel’s sons could not be trusted to govern them hence the people want a king “like other nations.” In this case it seems the mass of people want to transfer their alliance from the God of Israel as spoken through the prophet Samuel to an earthly king. This is emblematic of the human inclination to conformity, believing, “If other people do it, it must be right.”

A second school of thought  suggests it is an elite group of elders who come to Samuel asking him to anoint a king because having a king would contribute to their personal gain in wealth and power. Remember, “the best of the peoples’ fields, olive orchards and vineyards would be given to the king’s courtiers.” Power and wealth have an uncanny way of consolidating and self-sustaining.

In either case, Samuel is frustrated but, ever reliant on the Presence of God with him, he listens for the Word God to guide him and hears, “Listen to the voice of the people for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me (the Lord God) from being king over them.”

Faithful to what he “hears” from the Lord, Samuel warns the people about what it will be like to have a king. “He will take your sons and daughters and make them fight his battles and work his fields. He will take your best fields  and tax your businesses to fatten the purses of his rich friends. He will make you slaves, serving his ambition.” But the people refuse to listen. Twenty-six hundred years later, what have we learned?

Why are we humans so tempted to put our faith and pledge allegiance to earthly kings (read caesar, magnate, tycoons)?  Why do we turn our backs to God in favor of the flashing lights and prestidigitation of social, political and religious drama? Why do we still succumb to targeted sound bytes and seditious news pics designed to ignite fear and mistrust of one another? To what voice shall we pledge our allegiance? The voice of the prophet speaking on behalf of God or the voice of the self-serving king?

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 3 June 2018

Bishop Michael Curry, center, leads an interfaith march during a Reclaiming Jesus event in Washington on May 24, 2018. RNS photo by Jack Jenkins

 1 Samuel 3:1-20         Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

Reflection      This is the story of God and God’s people. It is a story of call and response, and in order to respond we must first be listening which is why Eli counsels Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if (the Lord) calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ But listening is not enough. Like Samuel we must also transfer alliance from our worldly teachers and authorities to the presence of God with us, even when it means speaking hard truths out loud, even to our teachers and authorities as did Samuel with Eli.

Recently 1.9 billion people were blessed to listen to the call of a present day prophet, the Episcopal Church’s own Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who preached at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in what one news source described as “a moment of divine intervention.” 

The progressive Christian leader Jim Wallis wrote, “God used a royal wedding to have the gospel preached probably to the largest audience at one time.” Then speaking about his commitment to join with faith leaders to promote the Reclaiming Jesus Movement Bishop Curry explained, “My hope and prayer is that what we’re really doing is helping the average Christian person of faith find their voice. We’re trying to find a way to bring people together and the values that we share is our starting place for doing that. We don’t tell people how to vote,” Curry said. “We don’t tell people exactly what policies they must stand for. We identify what are the values that will guide you in your life. But the rest? That’s between you and God.”

What are those values? As the voice of today’s prophet Curry preaches,“Love the neighbor you like and the neighbor you don’t like. Love the neighbor you agree with and the neighbor you don’t agree with. Love your Democrat neighbor, your Republican neighbor, your black neighbor, your white neighbor, your Anglo neighbor, your Latino neighbor and your LGBTQ neighbor. Love your neighbor! That’s why we’re here!”*

He concludes, “In these incredibly polarizing and frankly demoralizing times we need a moral message that’s anchored in faith not ideology and politics.” Essentially Curry is counseling us to transfer our alliance from the voices of politicians, ideologues and the media to the interior voice of the Word God with us, a Word we hear from trustworthy prophets. 

Like Samuel I believe our Presiding Bishop is a trustworthy prophet and I pray that “none of his words will fall to the ground.” God is not silent, remote or uninterested even though we may look at our lives or the world in which we live and want to shout, “O God, where are you in this? “ It is time for us to stop listening to media campaigns and political posturing and transfer our alliance to the Word God with us and love our neighbors, especially the ones that are most difficult for us to love. 

When we lay down our politics and personal predilections to embody the values proclaimed by our prophets, we too will be trustworthy. 

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* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/27/bishop-michael-curry-reclaiming-jesus-trump accessed 31 May 2018.

Hebrew Testament Text for Trinity Sunday 27 May 2018

Isaiah 6:1-8        In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; 

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Reflection     “The whole earth is full of God’s glory” in spite of the shameful state of affairs erupting throughout the nation twenty-six hundred years ago and today.  And, God needs someone to speak to the people and remind them that God is present and active no matter how terrible things appear. No doubt caught by a knot twisting in his belly, Isaiah pleads that he is not fit for the task of speaking on behalf of God, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…” Whereupon a seraph, a Spirit of God,”holds a live coal that had been taken from the altar” to Isaiah’s lips, a ritual act to illustrate the inner cleansing of Isaiah’s heart and mind. Herewith Isaiah experiences God’s invitation, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” He responds, “Here am I; send me!” and proceeds through the course of his life to preach and counsel three different kings and die a martyr’s death.

Isaiah puts his faith in his experience of Divine Presence that invites his incarnate response inspired by the Spirit. Benevolent Father calls to faithful Son through the effectual action of the Spirit.  God is made known in the relationships of the transcendent, incarnate and demonstrative.

Leaping forward six hundred years, might Jesus have heard rumors of the prophet John the Baptizer shouting in the wilderness? “People, listen up. Your world is in a shameful state. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. If you keep doing the same thing you can expect the same response. So repent, turn around, change your minds your hearts and the way you live. Now, as an outward and visible sign of your intention to do just that, come down to the river and I will baptize you with water.”

And did Jesus go to the river, saying “Here I am,” and allow John to immerse him in the cool river waters? Was it in that act of faithful acquiescence that Jesus consciously experienced the Spirit of God with him and came to claim his identity with God? Of course, this is all speculation, but when it comes to God what else can we do? 

For me the Trinity is nothing if not the community of God. Putting our faith in the benevolence of Divine Presence,  responding by imitating Jesus’ life and ministry, empowered by the effectual Holy Spirit, we live and breath and find the courage to say, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

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Gospel for Sunday 3 February 2013

Luke 4:21-30        In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Reflection        Fickle. That’s the word that leaps to mind as I read Luke’s text. One minute the Nazarene people wax on about Jesus’ gracious words then the wind changes and so do their minds and behavior. As long as the people from his hometown imagined that Jesus came to bestow special blessings on them, God’s chosen people, he was top of their hit parade. But when Jesus reminded them of how God uses God’s people for the benefit of outsiders, the Gentiles, not only did his hometown “friends” run him out of town, they set their sights on killing him. An excellent example of the arbitrary and capricious nature of the human mind and behavior. 

Stable. That’s the word that comes to mind when I read the last sentence of Luke’s text. “But he (Jesus) passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” Unmoved by the changing tide of human sentiment and behavior, Jesus maintained his calm. He sustained his presence, and “went on his way.” Jesus did not react to the Nazarenes. He remained constant in his faith and reliable in his mission. 

Fickle or stable. Driven by the ever changing tides of circumstance and impulsive behavior or constant in self awareness and reliable behavior. I don’t know about you but I face the choice between fickle and stable on a regular basis. Will I put my faith in the One who sent me and be reliable in my given mission to love the Gentiles in my world? Or will I react to the whims and rumors and prodding of the mercurial voice of the people and lose my way? I believe this is the quandry Luke’s text leaves with us. Fickle or stable. What shall we be?