Gospel text for Sunday 1 May 2016

John 5:1-9

After Jesus healed the son of the official in Capernaum, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.

Reflection          At first glance I wonder, why in the world the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years did not leap at Jesus question, “Do you want to be made well?” with an unequivocal, “Of course I do?” But when I pause and ponder more deeply I have to ask myself, “What may the man have to give up to be made well? What does he stand to lose?”

What if Jesus appeared and asked me, “Do you want to be made well?” Would I be able to respond with a resounding, “Of course I do,” or, would I pause to consider how my life might be changed? Honestly, the possibility stirs a tidal wave of questions in my belly.  “What might be the unintended consequences of giving up the way I have lived for the past thirty-eight years? Who would I be if I no longer identified with the countless reasons why I have not or cannot or will not be all that I am created to be, healed in the image and likeness of God? What would my family think if I was as concerned about strangers as I am about them?  What would my friends think if suddenly I stood up and really loved my neighbors and my enemies as God loves me? Who would I offend with my all inclusive love? What if being healed meant I had to break some rules or traditions as did the paralyzed man at the pool who violated Temple law by carrying his mat on the Sabbath?”  No wonder the paralyzed man evaded Jesus’ question. 

The good news is, God is always inviting us into healed or reconciled relationship with God, our selves and others. So it is not surprising that Jesus took the initiative to cut through the years of entropy, the thirty-eight years the paralyzed man was stuck in an unhealthy system of thoughts and feelings, projections and defenses that prevented him from being well.  It is not surprising that Jesus cut to the core of the situation and told the man, “Stand up. Don’t just lie there.” 

I wonder how many of us feel rather like the man by the side of the pool? In what ways are we paralyzed by the ceaseless blasts of bad news?  Do we feel like victims of social, economic, political and religious circumstances created by everyone else “who steps ahead of us?”  Who have we blamed?  How have we remained passive? How has fear supplanted our faith and left us like deer paralyzed in the headlights of a speeding car? Thank goodness God never gives up and never stops inviting us to stand up, be healed and carry on. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 24 April, 2016

John 13:31-35        At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to Everyone will, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Reflection       Jesus does not tell us what to believe. He shows us how to live, “as I have loved you” This is the difference between orthodoxy, right belief,  and orthopraxy, right behavior. Orthodoxy gives us propositional statements or doctrine to believe and profess in order to be identified with a particular religious group and thus be in God’s favor. Orthopraxy shows us how to live in right relationship with God and all people.

One of the reasons I love the Episcopal tradition is that it is a way of life based in practice, orthopraxy, rather than doctrine.  Everyone will know who we are by who we invite to God’s table, who we allow to receive God’s sacraments, who is allowed to lead worship. Everyone will know who we are because we continue in the prayers and practices begun in the first centuries of this era. Everyone will know who we are by the book we use to order our worship and remember the prayers and documents handed down to us through history. Everyone will know who we are because we still call our 1979 Book of Common Prayer the new prayer book. Everyone will know who we are because we bring reason, tradition and experience to interpret the scriptures and have no distinctive Anglican/Episcopal theology. Everyone will know who we are because we engage questions and reject certainty. Everyone will know who we are because we seek unity rather than uniformity. Everyone will know who we are because in our prayers and in our practice we intend to live in right relationship with God and all people. Everyone will know who we are because we have love for one another. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 17 April 2016

John 10:22-30        At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one.”

Reflection        We have all experienced listening and not listening; being listened to and not being listened to. It reminds me of a scene from the movie "The Life of Brian,” the scene is the sermon on the mount and the viewer is standing at the back of the a large crowd when Jesus says , "Blessed are the meek." And an old woman asks the person next to her, "What did he say?" "Blessed are the Greeks."  Then Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." A bystander kind of scratches her head and repeats, "Blessed are the cheese makers,” then passes the good news along. Listening is not simple. Speaking is not plain. It is multilayered.

Listening has a lot to do with our expectations. When we are like sheep, vulnerable and expecting goodness and blessing from our shepherd, we are inclined to hear good news or blessing no matter what the circumstance. So the Greek woman in the crowd hears …"blessed are the Greek.”  

When we are like sheep we hear the shepherd's voice and it reaches beyond our ears to the deepest truest part of our selves. It is there, in Spirit, that we receive eternal life. Does eternal life mean the our bodies will never die? No. Eternal life is life in the Spirit that hears the message deeper than words and sees beyond external appearances of separation, fear, loss and death. This is what Jesus meant when praying, “The glory that you (Father) have given me I have given them (that would be us) so that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one…” (John 17.22-23) Still the shepherd’s message is hard to hear.

We have been conditioned to hear bad news rather than blessing. This prevents us from listening deeply.  Our prejudices and fears are like little officials who live inside us and constantly evaluate what we hear, make judgments about the speaker, sure up our defenses and cling to our beliefs. Beliefs such as,"I know the world revolves around the earth because we humans are the center for everything." To really listen we must set aside our interior dialogues, judgements and beliefs. When we pause and are inclined to hear blessing, we listen into the place of the eternal, the place where the distinction between me, you and God dissolves and we meet in Spirit. This is holy encounter, being in spirit and in truth. 

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Christian Testament Text for Sunday 10 April 2016

Acts 9:1-20

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord." The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God.”

Reflection         I have no idea if Pope Francis ever had a road to Damascus experience. But I believe on Friday morning the Roman Catholic Church was knocked off its proverbial horse when the Vatican released Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation — “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love” in which he “urges church leaders to serve as nurturing pastors, not as rigid enforcers of doctrine.” In a game changing proclamation the bishop of Rome called for the Roman Church “to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and he seemingly signaled a pastoral path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion.” Francis does not stop there. He “calls for priests to welcome single parents, gay people and unmarried straight couples who are living together.” Even though he maintained the singularity of heterosexual marriage, the bishop of Rome writes, “A pastor cannot feel that it is enough to simply apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives.” He continues, “I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion.” (Read - there are those who want the black and white certainly of unbending rules and regulations) “But, I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness… We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them..”*

Which brings us to an earlier world changing moment. “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” For the rigorist Saul there is no room for confusion. If you dare to break or even question the religious or political status quo, you are to be apprehended and exported.  That is, until something inexplicable happens. The lights go on and Saul hears the Lord ask him, “Why do you persecute me?” Could this have been the birth of Saul’s inner voice of conscience? Could it have been the seed of goodness “which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness?” 

Saul and Pope Francis are both affiliates of religions traditionally bound by principles and rules laid down by authorities as incontrovertibly true. And it appears both Saul and Pope Francis have personal experience that disputes the legalistic boundaries of their religions. Both Saul and Pope Francis’ actions indicate, we are not people of the dogma. We are not people of the doctrine. We are people of The Way. The Way  is the way of encountering God deeply, truly and personally. 

All that we experience is in and of, with and through God. Every moment we breathe in relationship with God. Everything we think and feel, say and do is in relationship with God, the goodness “which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.” The thing is, as with Saul, we cannot wrap our minds around it. Our encounter with the Divine is too much to apprehend. We cannot see it until those who have gone before us help us open our eyes and remember how God is acting in our lives. Which is what I believe Pope Francis is doing in the world today. Like Ananias, Pope Francis is answering God’s call to lay his healing hands upon the peoples of this world, to open our eyes and remember our baptism as sisters and brothers of One, Holy Family of God.

 *http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/08/world/europe/pope-francis-statement-on-family.html accessed April 8, 2016.                      

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Gospel text for Resurrection Sunday 27 March 2016

Luke 24.1-12         On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        In that moment when the women looked into Jesus’ tomb, when they looked into the place of death, they encountered Divine Presence and Wisdom awakened within them. You see these women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women “had walked in the way of God.”  They were touched and healed and led and taught by Jesus. So we should not be surprised that Wisdom awoke in the emptiness of their broken hearts. We should not be surprised that when they looked into the place of death they saw it was not empty. There they encountered the ineffable Divine Presence and knew that Jesus’ words were true. Jesus was not to be found among the dead. Jesus’ place is with the living. Jesus’ place is in the hearts and minds and lives of his friends.

You see Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women were expecting to participate in the burial rituals of preparation for resurrection. That’s what the preparing of Jesus’ body was all about. According to Jewish custom it was essential to properly prepare a person’s body so that it could begin its long journey toward a far distant resurrection. So yes, the women expected resurrection,  but it was not supposed to happen..... NOW! NOW is the moment of resurrection. NOW is the moment of new life.  Resurrection is not put off for some distant time.

In his book “Befriending Our Desires,” the Jesuit priest Philip Sheldrake, S.J. writes, “Ecstasy is a moment in which some otherwise distant reality is glimpsed as here and now and at one with oneself.” (p 85) Standing at Jesus’ tomb the women experienced an ecstatic moment as Wisdom lit up their darkness.

Wisdom is a kind of knowing that exceeds the rational faculties of the human mind. Wisdom is knowing rooted in encounters with the Divine. Some might even suggest that the Bible is actually a series of descriptions of mystical encounters or altered state experiences associated with the ongoing revelation of Wisdom.  

Throughout the 20th century in the US, though we were curious about altered states (both natural and induced), we were skeptical. In the great age of rationalism, we labeled such things as irrational and dismissed them. This attitude set us apart from 74% of the 488 societies the anthropologist Erika Bourguignon studied in 1960s. Her conclusion was, “Societies that do not use these (altered states of consciousness) clearly are historical exceptions which need to be explained, rather than the vast majority of societies that do use these states.” In other words, having and ascribing value to altered state experiences is the norm throughout the world.

The good news is that now, in the 21st century, there is a cultural shift as we acknowledge the limits of rationalism. Astrophysicists admit that their ever growing knowledge of the cosmos accounts for 4% of what is, meaning 96% is literally in the dark - dark matter. Increasingly we are inclined to claim and affirm the value of knowledge or wisdom that exceeds the bounds of rational analysis. Scientists as well as theologians are affirming the Mysterious dimensions of human experience. There is something more than we can measure with our minds.

This is the wisdom Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women at Jesus’ tomb experienced two thousand years ago. This is the wisdom we remember that we are the people of God because we walk the women in the way of God, and the wisdom of the light of Christ is born anew within us.  Alleluia Christ is risen! 

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neil-degrasse-tysons-new-show-cosmos-and-why-faith-and-reason-are-irreconcilable accessed 21 march 2016.

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Gospel text for Passion Sunday 20 March 2016

Luke 22:39-46        He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’ Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.] When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’

Reflection       It is human nature to react and meet violence with violence. We are hard wired to protect ourselves. That is why when the disciples see Judas preparing to betray Jesus they ask, “Should we strike with the sword?” Should we counter-attack?  Jesus is unequivocal. “No,” but the sword has already injured the ear of a slave. Then Jesus responds in the extreme; Jesus touches and heals the injured slave’s ear. The kingdom of God does not operate according to the same rules of engagement as the kingdom of humanity.

The disciples do not understand this because, instead of following Jesus’ instruction to, “Pray that you may not be tempted,” they fall asleep, which is to say, they are unconsciousness. The question before each of us is, “Are we asleep or are we praying that we “won’t give in to temptation?” Are we praying to align our will in the will of God? Are we open to receive the spiritual strength to live in accord with God's rules of engagement? Or are we like the disciples, unconsciously reacting and willing to preemptively strike out against those who threaten or betray us?

Here’s the thing. It is down right painful to avoid the temptation to react to anger with anger or violence with violence. It takes an enormous amount of discipline forged of continual turning to God in prayer to resist the ways and temptations of the world. It is only in the grace of God, represented by the angel from heaven that strengthened Jesus in his fevered prayer, that we too can offer healing, forgiveness and peace to our world held hostage by fear mongering, power-hungry, self-serving individuals and institutions. 

The time is now to wake up and pray for the strength to align our will in the will of God and live according with God's rules of engagement.  Unless we stay awake and pray we will be swept into the sea of violence and the peace and reconciling power of God’s Spirit  that flowed through Jesus will fail to continue to flow through us. The kingdom of God depends on us and we depend on prayer so "Pray that you may not succumb to temptation."

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Gospel text for 13 March 2016

John 12:1-8       Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

Reflection        As a priest given the privilege of anointing let me just say this. Whether I am placing a frankincense scented sign of the cross on an infant’s pristine forehead or anointing an elder person’s  furrowed brow and curled feet on their deathbed, the confluence of touch, and smell, and prayer arouses Divine Presence and reaches beyond time. This is truly holy ground. I believe this is what Jesus’ disciple Mary recognized. She was meeting Jesus on holy ground. Mary could see beyond external appearances to something more, to the spiritual dimension. Mary recognized Divine Presence in and of and with Jesus. 

By contrast, Judas was locked into worldly affairs. He could not see beyond external appearances and so he took advantage of Jesus’ situation for his personal gain. Because his heart was hardened he did not recognize Jesus nor could he recognize himself. The deepest truth of Judas’ self, that he too was a beloved son of God, was hidden from him.  Judas could not recognize divine presence with him. But the heart of Mary, the true disciple, was broken open with love. Putting her faith in something more than external appearances, love poured through her extravagantly, like expensive perfume released from a bottle permeating the air and infusing the holy ground. 

This week I had a glimpse of what extravagant love looks like when a woman shared with me her experience as a caregiver. The person given to this woman’s care is not what we would describe as a docile dying woman. She tends to be querulous and wearing. She has been dying for a very long time. Nonetheless the caregiver sees beyond the unpleasant external appearances  and veritably glows when describing sitting with this woman, ministering to her every need and demand, often at great physical and emotional personal expense. What I saw in the face and heard in the words of the tireless caregiver was extravagant love, poured through her like expensive perfume, recognizing the holy ground hidden in plain sight.

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